December 9th

December 9: Luke 1:26-38

Luke 1:26-38  (NIV)

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.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Reflection

The angel appears and says “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” When the angel says, “The Lord is with you,” he was not only using a phrase that was a greeting and a sort of common blessing, but was pointing to the fact that in Mary’s case, the Lord was actually with her. She was pregnant with Jesus.  Not only was the Lord with her, but the Lord would be close to all of us because of the child she was bringing into the world.

Why do we we still struggle to sense God's presence?

God has always been with us, but we tend to doubt it. By coming in the flesh, born into the world, the doubts about whether God was with us or amongst us were meant to be diminished. Why is it that now, just as much as then, we still doubt that God is with us?

Growing in your faith simply means growing in your confidence in God.

How might you trust God more this year than you have any year before?

Prayer

God, who is always with us, I believe! Help my unbelief.