My Mother Encounters an Angel

July 17, 2019

My Mother Encounters an Angel

Pages 13-14

Matthew 1:18b-25; Luke 1: 26-38

In these last two readings, God invited four individuals to take a leap of faith. Zachariah was serving in the Temple, the place where God would be expected to speak to His people. An angel of the Lord spoke, and Zachariah balked. (However, nine months later Zachariah made his leap of faith. Page 17-18, Luke 1:57-80) Elizabeth leaped as she praised God, “How kind the Lord is!” she exclaimed. “He has taken away my disgrace of having no children” (Luke 1:25).

Mary also leaped as she responded to Gabriel’s announcement to her, “Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true” (Luke 1:38).

Joseph leaped twice! When he learned Mary was pregnant, he had several choices. He could have had used the Bible to have Mary killed, or shamed as he publicly divorced her. However, he chose none of those options. He chose to not harm Mary, to not abuse, expose, shame, ridicule, or demean her value and dignity. He chose to protect her. Where did he get such a notion that was so counter cultural to his times? When Joseph could not see God’s hand in the circumstance of Mary’s pregnancy, Joseph trusted God’s heart. Joseph responded by trusting the nature and character of God. Joseph leaped again when he responded to an angel of the Lord’s appearance to him in a dream, “When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife” (Matthew 1:24).

My Takeaway: Daily, God is providing me with opportunities to take a leap of faith and respond to His hand at work in my life. The only question is whether I’ll balk, or will I leap in faith.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.