Let's continue together through the story of Christmas.
Hope
Encouragement
Christmas
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Christmas Day 4, the beans or the background. To recap, the angel Gabriel has appeared to Mary telling her that she is going to be the mother of God's son and that her much older distant cousin Elizabeth is going to have a baby too. Oh, and that baby is to be the one who will prepare God's people to receive her baby, Jesus. Today, we pick up with the part of the story where Mary decides to travel a few days distance and visit with Elizabeth. The verse, Luke chapter 1, verses 39 through 45. Mary visits Elizabeth. At that time, Mary got ready and hurried to a town on the hill country of Judea where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice, she exclaimed, Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear. But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her. Esteem. What does this mean to me and how can I apply it to my life today? After hearing that she's going to have God's baby while engaged to Joseph, I imagine Mary wanted to immediately go and be with the one other person in the world who could possibly begin to understand what's happening to her. She wants to see her cousin because she also had an encounter with the angel Gabriel. I mean, you've got to be questioning your sanity at some point, right? Thankfully for poor Mary, as soon as she arrives, Elizabeth greets her quite loudly and enthusiastically. Blessed are you. Elizabeth's greeting not only affirms that this is really happening, but it gives Mary hope. Oh yeah, this is a blessing. God is with me. Mary was seeking support and hope and went to the one place she could possibly think of to find it. However, what she discovered was so much more. Yes, Elizabeth was the one exclaiming how blessed she was, but remember, Elizabeth did this because she was filled with the Holy Spirit. God was using Elizabeth as his vessel to comfort Mary in a time of doubt, fear, and confusion. The Holy Spirit provides Mary with the reassurance she desperately needs, allowing her to believe that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her. From personal experience, I believe and know that God works in mysterious ways. I will go to my grave sharing this story. One time, as I questioned God about an answer I thought he was sharing with me about a prayer I had been stressing over, you know, just wanted to make double sure that I had heard him correctly. He said, Christine, I speak to my children in mysterious ways all the time, but you are just often too busy or too distracted to notice. It's easy to move past the thought, the comment, the rainbow that you suddenly notice, or that warm feeling out of nowhere and call it just a coincidence, but when we do that, we miss the blessing God is trying to give us. Keep your eyes open to discover his answers.
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