This is the second week in Advent, a time to celebrate Christmas for a whole month, not just a single day. How are you doing at preparing your heart for the season?
From Chapter Three of Be Born in Me:
God chose Mary for an incredible assignment, didn’t He? Think about it, this is the biggest assignment of anyone in the Bible! You think your wife fussed about what to eat and what to do when she was pregnant? Mary is carrying God’s Son. No pressure there! Can you imagine what she thought about having to climb up on the back of a donkey and travel for four days to the city of David? Can you hear her in the cold of the night? “Joseph, sorry I can’t do that, I AM carrying the Son of God here, you know!”
Looking again at Luke 1 we see that the angel, Gabriel, has told Mary that she has been chosen. Mary asks, “How?” The angel replies, “Nothing, you see, is impossible with God.” [1]
Do you know that you have been chosen by God for an assignment today and everyday? How does that make you feel? For some, it is overwhelming. For others it is exciting. For me it is humbling. Humbling, because most days I feel completely inept at doing something for our great (announcer voice here) GOD, THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE.
But that is the point, isn’t it? For the greatest impact, God uses the everyday person to reach the everyday person. You don’t have to have a Bible degree or years of ministry training. You can grab a cup of coffee and walk to the end of the driveway and share His story with your next door neighbor. You can sit on the floor with a bunch of preschool students and sing simple songs. You can offer a hug to an elderly woman in a nursing home wheelchair.
He has chosen you to carry His message and His love to those around you. And there is no better time to do so than at Christmas. People in our culture are open to hearing about Jesus, and talking about spiritual things, more so during December than any other time of the year. So may He give you the heart of Mary to bring His joy to your world this Advent.
And be encouraged to know that He has chosen you to do so.
Be Born in Me is divided into five sections and includes discussion questions so you can use in a weekly small group, family devotional or class setting. Here’s the link to the amazon web site: http://amzn.to/SNOkND. And here’s the link to the Kindle site: http://amzn.to/RI7ODe. (c) 2012. Rich Ronald.[1] Luke 1:37 (The Message)
RichRonald.com 