'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.'
'I am the Lord's servant,' Mary answered. 'May your word to me be fulfilled.' Then the angel left her.'
Luke 1:35-38
So I have been thinking a lot about Mary recently, and what sort of life she must have had being pregnant with Jesus. I know that Mary is like the person all the little girls want to be at the church nativity or whatever, but really, it must have been very, very hard to go through what she had to go through. I mean, Mary was a virgin, and for her to be pregnant at that time while engaged to someone would be about as shocking as an 11 year old being pregnant today. Think ab0ut it. Everyone would have looked down on her, thought she was some kind of scum, all her friends would have left her, her family would have cast her out - it would have been very hard.
But Mary was brave. And I'm gonna talk about bravery today, and what it means for us. Mary wasn't brave in the sense that she was gonna walk over Niagara Falls on a tightrope, or climb Mount Everest. Mary was brave to go out and face all the people in her village, when she knew she would be cast out, hurt, even physically damaged. She was brave enough to do what God had said even in the most nerve-wracking, scary circumstance. She was brave enough to say to that angel, "I am the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled." I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty brave, right?
And I feel that us Christians in today's world need to be brave. We need to be like Mary. God has a plan for us, and if we have courage we can follow it. Even the smallest things, like praying on a day when you feel awful, need courage to do. If we can stand out there and do what God wants us to do, if we can fulfil his word, we need to be brave. And there is only one person who can do that for you. only God can make you brave. Didn't he make Gideon brave enough to lead Israel into battle? God can do wonderful things through you. All you need is faith and courage.
Prayer
Dear Lord,
Please make me brave enough to do the things you want me to do. Help me to stand up for what is right and ignore what others think of me. Thank you that you can do anything. Please give me courage.
Amen