Organizing the Inside – Day 138 Faith to Make the Right Choice

January 19, 2012 at 2:00 pm · Filed under Faith, Inspiration, Relationship, Wisdom, Women's Ministry and tagged: Christianity, God, Jesus, Mary

26In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30“Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

34Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” 35The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. 36What’s more your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. 37For nothing is impossible with God. 38Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
~ Luke 1:26-38

Well God I have no idea.
What do you do when you have no idea what God has planned? Have you ever experienced being in a situation that clearly seemed the outcome would be unfavorable from your prospective? Have you ever questioned the Lord, “What must God be thinking?” While you know He is going to work things out in the end, the situation you are looking at seems bleak. Part of walking with God means trusting Him too. My experience has been that He tells us things on a “need to know basis,” not all at once. God rarely gives us all the answers up front, and if He did, we still couldn’t fully wrap our minds around His “Big Picture” plans anyway. I’m sure for the most part God realizes we can’t handle all that information.

Either you trust God or not.
When faced with a choice we sometimes have to respond immediately. Some situations require an immediate response and there isn’t a lot of time to think things over. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman, and He won’t rush us into making a decision; nor will He force us to do anything. Part of walking in the Spirit is about being in a state of readiness, we need to stay in tune to the Holy Spirit . This is not always easy because stress can make this more challenging and fear can make it  almost impossible. Many times Christians use the excuse “Well let me pray about it,” and in some situations that is the appropriate response. There are however times when you need to decide whether you are going to say yes to God or not and you need to make that choice right then and there.

Mary chose to submit to God’s will.
When the angel of the Lord visited Mary to tell her that God needed to use her she must have been a bit stunned at first. Not knowing what to expect, would she have to suffer terrible consequences if she said no, and passed up this opportunity to serve? I wonder if Mary even considered the possibilities of becoming an outcast for being pregnant out-of-wedlock. What if Joseph decided to put her away quietly? The scriptures point more to the fact that Mary willingly accepted her assignment. She had only one question for the of the angel. Mary wanted to know how this was possible since she was a virgin.

But she immediately opened her heart to the will of God and said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.”  Luke 1:38

In Mary’s case she didn’t tell the angel of the Lord to come back later; she wanted more time to pray about the matter. She didn’t say, let me talk it over with my fiancé and I’ll get back to you tomorrow. There are times when must make a choice and respond decisively. The next time God has an assignment for you and you’re given the choice, would you respond in the spirit or the flesh? Would you respond out of fear or faith?

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