Luke 1:34 (ESV)
[34] And Mary said to the angel,
“How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
Mary immediately recognized two
problems with the angel Gabriel’s message. First, how can one born in an unimportant,
small town to an unknown young woman engaged to a carpenter be considered holy
and king material? I addressed this in an earlier post. For Mary the second
problem is the greater problem. She is a descendant of David, as is her future
husband, so it’s conceivable that he could be king. But science and common
sense agree that a virgin cannot conceive a child. “How will this be?”
God’s answer is simple from his
perspective and unbelievable from ours. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and
the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” That’s all you need to know.
And that is all we need to know. God sometimes works through simple obedience,
like when Stephen was told to go to the wilderness where he found the Ethiopian
Eunuch ready to receive the gospel. Yet God also works through the miraculous
like sending a worldwide flood, causing a virgin to conceive, or having his Son
resurrect from the dead. Either way, it is the power of God.
Sometimes I think believers celebrate
the great miracles of the Bible but act as though God has no more power today. Yet
how can we do anything without the power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, Stephen went
into the wilderness and shared the gospel with the Ethiopian, but the Spirit of
God had already prepared the eunuch to receive the word. This is where
obedience and faith intersect. When Mary was told how this could be she responded,
“Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word”
(Lk 1:38). That is the response God is calling each of us to. Or, in the words
of the old hymn, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus
than to trust and obey.” Just remember that trusting comes before obeying.
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