According to Your Word

Luke 1:26-38, “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.’…‘For nothing will be impossible with God.’ And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her.”

I'm so grateful that Mary had the faith to go along with God's plan. Following His plan often leads us to places we wouldn’t ordinarily go. Doing the Lord’s will is not always easy and often it requires something extraordinary of us. It demands faith and obedience, devotion and trust. It asks us to view the situation through the eyes of God and invites us to see the Lord’s mighty Hand at work—both in us and through us. Following the Lord’s plan unlocks untold blessings for us and very often everyone around. Following His plan encourages us to step out of our comfort zone and into the wide unknown, where spectacular things are bound to happen. Knowing and believing God enables us to confidently say, “let it be to me according to Your Word.”

This is a picture of the church in Nazareth that is built over the spot where this miraculous event occurred.