THE IMPOSSIBLE MADE POSSIBLE

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of his father David, and He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; His kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”

Luke 1:26-37

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The people of Israel were in need of hope many times in the Old Testament. Fully aware of everything, God sought to comfort His people and offer them hope in one of those instances by sending a messenger, a prophet, a tactic He used often to communicate with the Israelites.

In this case, the prophet’s name was Isaiah and the words he brought would serve as a prediction of what was to come.

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”  Isaiah 7:14

The southern kingdom of Judah, and specifically the capital city of Jerusalem, was under siege by the northern kingdom of Israel and the Arameans. The Judeans were fearful but God reassured them that they would be okay then and into the future. He would give them a sign that His promise was being fulfilled when a virgin would conceive and give birth to a son who would be named Immanuel which simply meant “God with us”. There was a day coming when there would be a great incarnation, God coming from heaven to earth to indeed coexist with His people, bringing not only Himself but an opportunity to be saved from their sins and live with Him forever.

It would be approximately 700 years until these words of God shared by Isaiah would come to life as another messenger, this time the angel Gabriel appears to a young, teenage virgin by the name of Mary. In the last devotion, we saw where this particular angel had already appeared one other time, coming to Zechariah as he was burning incense on temple duty. Zechariah’s initial response was one of fear and so Gabriel comforted him with a simple statement:

“Do not be afraid...you have found favor with God.”

Interestingly enough, we find Mary’s reaction to the angel’s appearance the same. The scriptures tell us she was “greatly troubled” even though the angel had first tried to calm her by telling her she was highly favored before saying:

“The Lord is with you.”

Gabriel would go on to give Mary an overview of what was to come.

“You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of his father David, and He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; His kingdom will never end.”

Put yourself in Mary’s place for a minute.

How overwhelming would this news be for a young teenage girl who is betrothed already to a local man named Joseph?

Gabriel told her a lot in just three sentences.

- She would become pregnant and deliver a boy she was to name Jesus.

- Her son would be great, so great that he would be called the Son of the Most High (the Most High being God Himself)

- God the Most High would give His Son David’s throne and authority over all of Jacob’s descendants, not just in the present day but forever because Jesus’ kingdom would never end.

It was a lot to process. There is no questioning this but this young girl seemed to be thinking rather clearly, rather simplistically really. For she had just one question for Gabriel and it was a very fundamental one:

“How will this be since I am a virgin?”

Marital engagements in the time of Joseph and Mary were akin to binding marital contracts. Neither of them would be allowed to have sexual relations with others lest be guilty of adultery and they weren’t allowed to have sex with one another either. Joseph and Mary would remain sexually abstinent until they were actually married. Until that time, Mary would continue to live with her parents.

So Gabriel’s words rather impossible to Mary, all this talk of her being impregnated and having a son. How was that going to happen to a virgin?

I couldn’t think but a matter Abraham and Sarah dealt with many, many years before Gabriel appeared to Mary. You might remember that Abraham and Sarah were very advanced in age but God promised them they would have a child. The elderly coupled scoffed at the very notion. Sarah even laughed but God had this to say to them:

“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Genesis 18:14

We know the rest of the story. Sarah did become pregnant, just as God promised and Abraham would go on to have those descendants that would be as numerous as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5). Indeed, nothing is too hard for God. He can do all things or as verse 37 of this passage states in some translations:

“For with God nothing will be impossible.”

Given this, Mary asked a question regarding what she saw a relative impossibility, wondering how she would conceive as a virgin. Gabriel had the answer from the God who does all things:

“The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”

No man would get Mary pregnant. Rather, her conception would be a divine and supernatural one caused by the Holy Spirit and the power of God Most High. A perfect Son of God could not come from any human means. Jesus’ DNA had to be fully of His Father if He was to truly be the “holy one”.

To underscore how God makes the improbable probable, Gabriel tells Mary that her relative Elizabeth, considered unable to bear children in her older years, was indeed pregnant herself and heading into her final trimester. We know her son would be John the Baptist, the forerunner who would be born to pave the way for Jesus to start His earthly ministry.

A virgin miraculously conceiving by the Holy Spirit and power of God the Most High.

A childless, elderly woman given a new lease on life and the chance to be a mother against all odds.

Both women experiencing this truth about the God who made them and all things:

He and He alone takes the impossible and makes it possible.

We need to remember this as we deal with our own challenges in life. If God’s word is truth and we’re told that no word of His will ever fail, then we had better trust every word He speaks to us, especially remembering that with God nothing is impossible.

And nothing means nothing.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com