Opening Prayer
Gracious God, I put myself before you in this moment with waiting heart, expectant desire. Open my eyes that I may see your promise fulfilled; open my ears that I may hear your word whispered to my deepest being.
Amen.
Passage
Luke 1:39-45
At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
Reflection - Alycia Betz
We all have a lens that we view our circumstances through. It can be a lens focused on human limitations, or it can be a lens of belief that God can do what He says He can do.
Mary chose the lens of belief when she responded to the angel who told her she would conceive a son by the Holy Spirit; she chose to take God at His word, and believed that God would do what He said He would. In contrast, when we look at Zechariah’s story, found right before Mary’s, we see a man looking through the lens focused on the human limitation of his wife, Elizabeth, being beyond her child bearing years.
What God said He would do was accomplished in both cases, but the consequence for Zechariah’s doubt was losing the ability to speak until the son God promised him was born. When I reflect on this, I see that us coming into alignment with what God says about who He is, and who we are in light of Jesus matters-it matters a lot.
Ask God what area of your life you need to replace the lens focused on human limitations with the lens of belief? Write your answer down, and ask God to expand your faith and vision to see your situation through His lens.
Closing Prayer
My Lord, may all that I have seen of you and all that I have heard from your word now enflesh itself in me. Send me from this place as the incarnate promise of life to all whose life I will touch this day.
Amen.