Oct. 3 Devotion: When We Don’t Understand

When We Don’t Understand

Luke 1:26-30

And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, [27] To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. [28] And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. [29] And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. [30] And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.

I want to establish a foundation before I get to the bulk of the thought today. What I want us to see here is that Mary was made up of the same flesh and blood as all of us. Sometimes I think we tend to look at the Bible and some of the people in it as supernatural or something. This was even brought up in the Bible Institute this past week. These people in these stories are just human beings like us. Mary was just like us. All that set her apart was that she had found favour with the Lord.

Think now for a moment of some of the things that Mary saw. She saw her Son mocked, spit upon, lied about, beaten, and crucified on the cross. On the surface, she understood what was told her in Luke 1. She knew God had sent His Son of the Highest as it says. However, I also believe it would be a natural reaction to question why people would treat Him this way through His ministry and especially at the cross. After all that, we don’t find her holding resentment to everyone. We don’t find her mingling with the world. Instead, we find her surrounded by other believers:

Acts 1:13-14

And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. [14] These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

We are going to have things in our lives that we don’t understand the reasoning behind why they took place. We might have times in our lives where we might even feel abandoned by God. We must not forget that He always knows best:

Romans 8:28

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.

The best thing we can do at times is to gather with other believers, lean on them, and just trust Jesus!

God bless,

Bro. Josh Richardson