Day 3
... God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.“ “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
Luke 1:26-35,38
The distance between the Old and New Testaments is only one page in the Bible, but it spans four long centuries. The Old Testament prophets shared many details about the coming of Jesus. After 400 years of silence, God dispatched His angel Gabriel first to Zechariah, and then to Mary. With this silence now broken, every Old Testament prophecy about Jesus began to be fulfilled.
Bethlehem is often the setting that comes to mind when we think of the Christmas story, but the events in Bethlehem would not have happened without the conception miracle in the small village of Nazareth. The Christmas story as we think of it begins in Nazareth when Mary accepted God’s invitation to be the earthly mother of his son, and Jesus was conceived.
Consider
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Mary bravely pushed past her fears and focused on the promise of God. Where do you need to be brave and push past fear, focusing on his promises? Spend some time talking to God about your fears, asking for his help in working through them.