The Blessing in Believing

Wishing you a Mary Christmas and the Marry-est New Year ever!

No, it’s not a spell check error — I did mean Mary. My prayer for all of us is to have a “believing that with God all things are possible” kind of year.

God sent an Angel to tell Mary that she was highly favored and would be having a baby; she should name Him Jesus. He was going to be the Savior of the world. (Refer to Luke 1: 26-38 for a full recap.)

Hmm. So, she’s going to have a baby — without having sex. She has to tell Joseph, whom she’s supposed to marry, she’s pregnant… with God’s baby. And she knows all of this because an Angel came to her in a dream!?!

Yet Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”

She said “yes.” Not maybe. Not, “Well, let me think about it… How in the world is this going to happen? Is Joseph still going to marry me? What will people think? I mean, it sounds kind of cool, but I need more details…”

She just said yes. Then (even more unbelievable), she let God take care of the rest!

When God gives us a God assignment, a God Dream, it’s always bigger than us. It will always take more than we have. It might not make sense and it probably won’t come with a 10 year detailed plan of how it’s going to manifest itself in our life.

I have a friend who’s extremely successful in her career. She is considered one of the best in her profession. She makes a fortune doing what she loves and helps others better their lives every day. She also went through a lot before becoming the success she is now. I asked her if it was worth it and she said, “Absolutely. But if you would have told me everything I was going to go through on day one…forget it! I would have said there was no way this could be God’s plan for my life; He would never want me to go through so much heartache and pain. I would have justified a million reasons not to start, much less kept on going when life got beyond rough.”

God knows His plans for us. He also knows they will overwhelm us. He knows how much we can take and when we can take it. He plants a seed in us. He gives us a vision. He asks for our trust. He asks for a “yes.” He asks us to believe in Him and let Him lead the way. Each time we step out in faith, God gives us more. With each step we take, He revels more of His plan for us. He holds our hand. He guides us — we just have to let Him lead!

So many times we block our blessings. We see the vision. We hear God. We get excited. But as soon as things get hard, when we don’t see results, when nothing seems to be working out the way we saw it happening, we usually quit — or we decide there has to be a better way, and it’s called, our way! (Ever hear of Abram and Ishmael? Check out Genesis 16.) When we take matters into our own hands, we might end up with something — but it won’t be what God wanted for us; what He planned for us. It won’t be God’s best.

Other times, we don’t take the first step toward God’s plan for our life. We think our way out of our destiny. We rationalize it to death. (As far as I can see, there’s nothing rational about the way Jesus came into the world. Nothing rational about Mary saying, okay, sure, if that’s what you say is going to happen — I’m in!)

We think ourselves out of our miracle. We stop ourselves from becoming someone else’s miracle.

God has a plan for each of us. He made us perfect for it. He has plans to prosper us, not to harm us but to give us a hope and a future! (Jeremiah 29:11)

Let’s wrap our hearts around the miracle of Jesus. The Miracle in Believing.

Just Believe… and let Him Lead!