** You will find the questions are similar but the responses are totally different.**

Date:   1/5/2017 10:39:06 PM ( 7 y ago)

KNOWING GOD'S WILL IS NOT ALL WAYS ENOUGH

Luke 1:34, "Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?"

Luke 1:26-38 (NIV)

The Birth of Jesus Foretold:
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,
27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.
31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,
33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[a] the Son of God.
36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.
37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Contrast Mary's question and Gabriel's response with the question that Zacharias asked Gabriel and the response that he received.
(Luke 1:18-20)
18 Zacharias said to the angel, “How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in [a]years.”
19 The angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who [b]stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.
20 And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.”

You will find the questions are similar but the responses are totally different.

Both Mary and Zacharias asked how these miracles would occur but it is evident that Mary was asking "how" in faith while Zacharias was asking "how" in unbelief.

It is a clear Bible teaching that unbelief doesn't please God (Heb. 11:6), but the Lord doesn't mind us questioning Him for the purpose of instruction so we can cooperate with His will in our lives.

Abram knew that it was God's will for him to have a son but Abram and Sarai came up with their own plan which caused them and the world much grief (Gen. 16:1-6).
Abram would have avoided many problems if he had asked the Lord how He was going to accomplish this miraculous event.

" Seek and you shall find "

If Mary had not questioned this angel, she might have reasoned that Jesus would be born through the natural union of her and Joseph. This would have been a grave mistake.

It would have disqualified her from being used.

It's not enough just to know God's will. We need to continue to seek the Lord until we know God's plan for accomplishing that will.

Amen!

- AWMI.net


 

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