The Promised One: Advent Day 19

Read & Journal

Read Luke 1:26-38. Ask yourself:

• Pause for a moment to consider what you’ve read. Outline, in your own words, what happened in this passage.

• What do these verses teach you about God and his character?

• What does this passage reveal about Jesus, his mission or purpose?

• As you read these verses, what promises of God can you identify? What promises of God does the angel say Jesus is fulfilling?

• In his conversation with Mary, Gabriel tells Mary about Elizabeth’s unlikely pregnancy then says, “Nothing is impossible with God.” Ponder that phrase? Is it sometimes hard to believe that is true? Why? Pour out those feelings in a journaled prayer.

• How would it change your daily life if you truly rested in the truth that nothing is impossible with God?

• Mary’s response to the angel was obedience. Think about your last choice, whether large or small. Did you respond with obedience? Why or why not? If you didn’t obey, how did you respond? Ask God to reveal, by His Spirit, how that response affected your relationship with God. If needed, seek forgiveness.

Ponder

As Elizabeth’s pregnancy began to blossom, an angel visited Elizabeth’s young relative with big news: Mary would also become pregnant and her son, Jesus, would sit on the throne of David and reign over a kingdom that would never end.

Mary was young. She was engaged to Joseph, and, while the betrothal was more binding than our modern day version of engagement, it wasn’t yet marriage. But Mary understood that the scenario the angel had outlined could have deadly consequences. Joseph was an honorable man, and for Mary to become pregnant would be a neon sign proclaiming her unfaithfulness. Joseph would have the right to divorce her, send her away, or worse, stone her as an adultress.

Mary’s mind must have been whirring as the angel spoke. “But . . . how?” she asked. It doesn’t seem to be a question fueled by doubt. Mary seemed to believe that God could do what the angel had described; she just wasn’t sure how it would physically happen. After the angel finished speaking, Mary responded simply, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let what you have said come true.”

Mary believed in a God who kept his promises. Since the beginning of time, God had been weaving this story of redemption, layer upon layer, through his interactions with the world. The Victor promised in the aftermath of that destructive moment in the garden. The Savior of many nations promised to an old man and his barren, childless wife. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God who led his people out of slavery. The God the prophets pointed to and proclaimed; the Messiah they promised. The King who would sit on the throne of David with a rule that would never end. Mary likely knew the stories, but she probably never expected that she would have a place within them, that God could use her.

It’s easy to believe the lie that God can’t use us. Maybe small daily choices to remain faithful seem inconsequential and tiny in the larger scope of what God is doing in the world. Or, perhaps our journey is littered with mistakes and unfaithfulness, choices that the enemy constantly uses to tell us we are useless in God’s work. “How could he ever use you, you failure,” Satan whispers to us over and over again until we believe him.

Today, tune your ears to the truth God has been whispering from the very beginning. Salvation has come in Jesus. He is the promised Messiah, a king who sits on David’s throne with a kingdom that cannot be destroyed. Satan may strike out, but he will not win. Each faithful choice, whether it’s big or small, is a victory in the battle, a moment when you choose to believe what the angel declared and Mary trusted: nothing is impossible with God.