SCRIPTURE: Luke 1
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
‘For nothing is impossible with God.’ ‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May it be to me as you have said.’ Then the angel left her. [Luke 1:37-38] God’s plan is to introduce the messiah into the world through unconventional means. Whereas our world celebrates strength, wealth, royalty, celebrity, beauty, etc., He chooses the weak, the disdained, the ordinary, the poor. And He does great and amazing things through them.
This is STILL God’s ways of revealing the messiah into the world. Through a barren senior, through a unknown virgin, a single mom, through an eccentric wilderness prophet. And so on… As the story unfolds, He uses foreign wise men, unclean shepherds, ordinary, uneducated fishermen. And so on… And eventually He calls the most unlikely of all, the #1 enemy of Jesus, Paul. Paul, who identifies himself as the greatest of all sinners and the least of all saints, is chosen by God to “give birth to” the messiah in the gentile world [see Galatians 4:19].
Do I believe that God can use me to help someone else meet Jesus? Do I believe that He can use my actions and words to open someone elses eyes? Do I believe that He can use me to bring people back to the Lord [Luke 1:16]. Impossible you say? Not gifted or educated enough? Not good with words? Just a nobody? Let this passage settle into your heart: God can use anybody, even me, for nothing is impossible with God!
We make excuses. Like Zechariah, we doubt God – is this why many of us lose our voice, our witness, because we doubt Him too? Instead we can look to Mary as an example and inspiration: ‘May it be to me as you have said.’ Yes Lord, here I am. Unworthy, incapable, but willing and available.
The only barrier to God using you to help others meet Jesus… is you. Just as John would minister in the power of the Spirit [Luke 1:15,80], this is how we witness for the Lord too. His power, not ours. He does what is impossible for us. He uses us to give birth to Jesus in the hearts and lives of others. Will I, like Mary, be willing and available?
PRAYER:
Lord, I want to be a part of Your plan to “give birth” to You in others, by being a willing partner with You, by Your Spirit. Take my mouth, my hands, my life, and use them to reveal Yourself!
This verse stood out to me when we were reading Corinthians. It helped me with speaking to others.
Corinthians 2: 4,5
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
I wrote in my journal that day; God is going to use me and I dont have to have wise and persuasive words.