What Is Out Of The Ordinary For God?
Good Morning Friends,
Anytime a child is born we can and should marvel at the birth, but when a child is born to a mother well past childbearing years as with Sarah and Abraham and Zechariah and Elizabeth, it is amazing. And then we have the case of Mary and the hints of the Golden Age of Israel returning in a remarkable reality of a virgin birth. We think it impossible, but then think again. What Is Out Of The Ordinary For God?
Scripture: Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.
Romans 12:9-16 (NRSV)
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.
Luke 1:39-56 (NRSV)
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Matthew 19:26 (NIV)
Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak. The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival. I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it.
Zephaniah 3:14-18a (NRSV)
Message: It is a big task to build a loving community. The key to achieving it is our birth in the Body of Christ. We are in a way to be born again. And the amazing thing about the reborn Body of believers is that God has given us so many different people with lots of different functions. And together we make up a new creation. The image that the Bible uses is that of a body. Lots of different parts: limbs and muscles and ligament and nerves; all different but all part of the body of Christ and, more importantly, part of each other. We gain strength in diversity. Each unique gift of the members is to help build a community that reflects God’s love. Friends, the mark of success in building this sort of community is the experience of mutual affection between members, much like a family as seen in the passage from Luke about Mary’s visit with family. That is, we are to be a people who genuinely enjoy being together, who treat one another with love and affection. Impossible prayer request you say. Well maybe, but then again, nothing is impossible with God. The thing is that we must be willing to let God answer prayers when the time fully comes. Sure, God does want to touch us and change our disappointment into His appointment, but we should be willing to let God answer in His own way. The beauty is that God can breathe hope into the stale air of impossible solutions, but we should be willing to let God answer with a divine power and not limit the solutions. Sometimes it just comes down to our being willing to receive love but even then, we should be willing to let God answer our prayers for a divine purpose.
Pray we present our bodies as living sacrifices. Pray we believe that with God’s help, ordinary people can do extraordinary things. Pray we believe that God is calling us to be an instrument of His will. Pray that we believe that God, in an act of extraordinary love, sent His son to save us and bring us peace. Pray we acknowledge that we must trust that God will answer our prayers in a way that is best for us and most useful to His plan. Pray we grow in faith and mature in our relationships bringing glory to God and a witness of Jesus in our lives. Praise God because He visits us, redeems us, bring us salvation and keeps His promises by extending to us the privilege of serving Him. Pray we rejoice in the Lord.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 