Reading Plan:
Luke 1:26-38

Our Thoughts:

At this point in Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus, Elizabeth is miraculously six months pregnant with John, and the entire world is unaware that it is pregnant with a hope it has never known.

Luke tells us that God sends Gabriel to visit an ordinary teenage girl—a nobody, from a nothing town—to tell her that she will give birth to the Son of God, the long-promised Messiah. Gabriel tells Mary she will conceive the very Promise that she (like Zechariah and Elizabeth) had prayed for God to send. WOW.

Three statements in the exchange between Mary and Gabriel encourage and challenge me. I bet they will encourage and challenge you, too! Take a moment to read the passage. After, we’ll look at each statement, together.

1. Gabriel, upon greeting Mary
“Do not be afraid. You have found favor with God.” (NIV)

The word “favor” in this text means “grace.” Gabriel is saying, “Mary, you have found grace with God."

Without context, “favor" sounds earned. Grace cannot be earned. It’s a gift—unexpected, undeserved. Just as God in His sovereign grace chose Zechariah and Elizabeth in the twilight years of their lives, He chose Mary—ordinary, young, inexperienced—as a vessel of His grace.

Mary did not somehow earn the privilege of becoming the mother of God’s Son (nor did He consider her innately strong enough to bear the burden of this God-parenting). This was God’s choosing, born out of His love, pleasure, and sovereign will. Ephesians 1:6 tells us this kind of choosing is “to the praise of His glorious grace which He has FREELY given us in the One He loves.” Mary was chosen “before the creation of the world” and “predestined” by God to experience His grace in this way, then birth the fullness of His grace into our world.

God chooses ordinary, inexperienced, sinful people every day to demonstrate His grace and accomplish His purposes in our world. He chooses impossible causes: old men and barren women like Zechariah and Elizabeth; young, inexperienced girls like Mary; ordinary people, like you and me.

2. Gabriel to Mary after she wonders about this physical impossibility
“And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren and here she is six months pregnant! Nothing, you see, is impossible with God.” (MSG)

Oh, I love this! God kindly goes before us. Just as God used John to prepare the hearts of His people for Jesus, God allowed Elizabeth’s impossible pregnancy to prepare Mary’s heart and strengthen her faith in God for impossible things.

Old and barren as Elizabeth… Young and inexperienced as Mary… Broken as we all are… NOTHING is impossible with God. He chooses foolish things to shame the wise, weak things to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 12:27).

God can take all the things we think make us and everything that would crush us and do impossible things in us, so the world might see His powerful love and experience His generous grace through our lives.

3. Mary’s response to Gabriel
“I am the Lord’s maid, ready to serve. Let it be to me just as you say.” (MSG)⠀

How often have we prayed for God to do something miraculous in our lives or in the world; repair something unrepairable, do something impossible?

What if God invites you to participate in the very answering of your prayers?

This was Mary’s story. She’d prayed for the Promised Messiah to come. She’d likely never dreamed God might use her in His answer. Yet when chosen, she made herself available—a willing vessel—surrendered to God despite disorienting questions, likely confusion, and reasonable fear. “Let it be to me just as you say…” her words so similar to her son’s years later in Gethsemane, “Not my will but thine be done…” ⠀⠀

Be available. Trust God. Choose obedience. Surrender. Because whatever, however, and wherever He is working in our lives, He is with us in it. Let Him work. ⠀⠀


More Questions:
• What impossible thing in your life needs to be surrendered to God?
• What is it that God desires to conceive in you for His glory, your good, and the good of others?
• What does it look like to be available for Him to work in and through your life?

Prayer:
From the song,“New Wine” by Hillsong Worship:
"[God], I yield to You into Your careful hand
When I trust You I don't need to understand
Make me Your vessel
Make me an offering
Make me whatever You want me to be
I came here with nothing
But all You have given me
Jesus bring new wine out of me"

Author: Lauren Strickland