Ready to Obey

Scripture: Luke 1:30-33, 38
"30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!...38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.

Observatiions:
One day the angel Gabriel out of nowhere just shows up in Nazareth to an unsuspecting teenage girl named Mary and fills her in on God's plan to save the world and how it was about to directly affect her life and exactly what it would cost her to be involved in it. Although Mary couldn't have known the full weight of what she was agreeing to upfront, she did understand what was required of her if she planned to do what God was asking of her. Having a baby was no small task and would require her to completely adjust her entire lifestyle for the next 9 months and then deal with the sacrifices of motherhood prematurely. There's no reason to believe that Mary was prepared to have a baby, especially since she wasn't even married yet. She wasn't even in ballpark of motherhood for at least another year or two according to her plan for her life. However, God plan intersected her life suddenly and unexpectedly leaving her with the option to either set her plans aside and obey or not be inconvenience and reject God's will for her life.

Application:
We're often encouraged whenever someone reminds us that God has a plan for our lives. However, if we truly believe that God has a plan, actually participating embracing God's plan requires that all of our plans, hopes, and dreams become subject to His direction, timing, and His method. The moment our plans start to get in the way of God's, He will eventually ask us to sacrifice what we want in order to be obedient to His will. The only thing is, it's our responsiblity to always be ready to obey whenever God speaks and equally ready to "surrender all" for the sake of Christ whenever His Kingdom requires our full committment. Of course God's plan for us will always be "good and not evil", however the price we may have to pay in order to obey may in fact cost us the "good" life we had planned for ourselves.

Prayer:
Father, we say today that we are willing to do whatever You require us to do for the sake of Your Kingdom no matter what. Help us to be ready and willing to be obedient to Your plan no matter what the cost or what sacrifice we must make to adjust our own plans to Yours. Amen.



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