The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Luke 1:26-38 (day four)

We tend to think of Mary as the quiet, faithful mother of the Lord. She was those things of course, but Mary is no two-dimensional character. Mary had plans for her life. She was engaged to be married, after all. She had hopes, dreams, and fears. She knew the pain of living under an oppressive government. She experienced the troubles of living near the bottom of the social ladder. I wonder what she had been thinking about just moments before the angel appeared to her.

When the angel spoke to her, the plans she had for her life shattered. No longer would she live without being associated with scandal. No longer would she live in obscurity. No longer could she doubt God’s presence with her.

Mary had built a strong faith despite her young age; and when her plans for her life were shattered by divine presence breaking into her heart and body, she replied, “May it be done.” Mary trusted God’s work in her and allowed him to build a new life for her in an instant.

When God breaks in and shatters our plans, how will we respond? May it be with the faith of Mary.

Re:Verse passage – Luke 1:26-38 (day three)

[Mary] was very perplexed at [the angel’s] statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.

Of course Mary was disconcerted. In Mary’s world, no one used “highly favored” as a mere formality, a cliché. This was not “dearly beloved, we are gathered here” or “world’s best cup of coffee.” The angel referred to Mary as highly favored precisely because the God of heaven and earth felt deep approval towards her. Mary could sense that an experience of an otherworldly kind had enveloped her. She knew not what it meant, nor what was in store, but she discerned the profound presence of safety and goodwill around her. In other words, when the angel called her highly favored, she felt the high favor. She didn’t know what came next, but she understood that she was going to be alright because God favored her.

Re:Verse passage – Luke 1:26-38 (day two)

And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” V. 28

 At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision. Daniel 9:23

The same angelic messenger that visited Mary had visited Daniel hundreds of years before with an incredibly similar salutation. To Mary the angel says “favored one” and to Daniel “you are highly esteemed.” Isn’t this an incredible picture of the cosmic awareness that Heaven has on our lives. It is understandable to get caught in the narrative that the world is big, there are billions of people, what do I matter, who will notice me? Heaven notices. You are walking this journey of faith with a multitude of the heavenly host standing at your side. The Lord chose Daniel and Mary for a grand purpose. You will not carry the savior of the world in your bosom, but you do have a purpose; and the Lord hears your pleas for help, for courage, for purpose. Even more than that, when you are faithful, when you are walking in step, you also have the voice of angels saying: way to go, favored one!

Re:Verse passage – Luke 1:5-17 (day seven)

But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard… vs 13a

Do not be afraid. Easier said than done. This isn’t a pale winged man holding a harp, nor a flying baby with a bow and arrow. The angel of the Lord strikes fear into the soul of every person that comes into contact with him (as we will see throughout this series). This is a representative of the King of the Universe, a manifestation of the power of the Living God. We should be afraid. Just as Isaiah repented as he came into the presence of the Lord, we recognize how insignificant we are when we are compared to heavenly grandeur.

Yet, the angel says, “Your prayer has been heard.” The power of the universe on display before our eyes as this manifestation reaches into the deepest chasm of our soul to provide the validation we so desperately need, God hears you! How long have you prayed? How long have you waited? The prayer is not unanswered, nor unheard, but the King of the Universe is working us into His plan through our prayers. Like Zacharias, we pray, we wait, we enter His presence humbly and faithfully, and we will see how powerful our God really is. That is a promise.

Re:Verse passage – Luke 1:5-17 (day six)

John the Baptist’s story isn’t just an announcement about the coming Messiah; it’s a picture of the kind of people God forms by His Spirit. When Gabriel speaks to Zechariah, he describes a child who would be filled with the Holy Spirit even in the womb and sent as a voice crying in the wilderness, calling people to repentance and renewed allegiance to God’s Kingdom. John’s whole life pointed away from himself and toward the One who was coming.

And here’s what has been stirring in me: isn’t that also what the Spirit does in us?

Every follower of Jesus is reborn by the Spirit, brought into a new identity, and empowered to bear witness to the King. We live between two great moments, looking back to the first coming of Jesus and pointing forward to His return. Our lives, our words, our hospitality, our faithfulness become small but real reminders that the Kingdom of God is here and the King is coming again.

Re:Verse passage – Luke 1:5-17 (day five)

“Now it happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division,”

I spent over twenty five years serving churches in youth ministry. One of my favorite sayings to those students was, “be in your place (on Sundays).”  What I had hoped the students would discover was that God (who  is at work and present with us at all times) is particularly visible, particularly verbal, and particularly nearer to us as we practice godly rhythms and disciplines. Private and corporate worship. Regular scripture reading and study. Praying. Serving. Christian community. We often see and sense the Lord clearer as we faithfully follow Christ in these ways. That’s what happened to Zachariah. Obedient. Righteous. Walking with the Lord in and through His commandments. Where are your “places” this advent season?  Will you faithfully follow Christ through godly rhythms and disciplines?  May He be particularly verbal and near to you!!

Re:Verse passage – Luke 1:5-17 (day four)

Zacharias and Elizabeth lived righteous lives, but they still wrestled with the realities of a broken world. Their inability to bear children was a point of hurt and shame in their lives, one they had dealt with for a long time. When the Lord confronts Zacharias in the temple, he gives him a promise that ministers to his deepest wound. This passage is meant to remind us of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel. Throughout our lineage of ancestors in the Kingdom of God, the Lord meets people in their hurt and shame and brings beauty out of that place. He not only gives Zacharias and Elizabeth a child, but he uses that child to prepare the way of the Lord and advance the Kingdom of God on the earth.

The Lord continues to work in this way today. He ministers to our hurt and shame in a variety of ways, but when we submit those things to the Lord, he is willing to not only heal us in that area, but use it to advance the Kingdom.

Re:Verse passage – Luke 1:5-17 (day three)

He will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

The description the angel gives of the boy’s future life and work appears congruent with the oath-taking, asceticism-valuing, solitude-pursuing men and women called Nazarites. Samson is perhaps the most sensational example of this religious class, famous (or infamous) as much for his lapses from his vows as for his status as a Nazarite in the first place. St. Paul also took a Nazarite oath, referencing his vows and the cutting of his long hair at the end of his oath period. But John would be a Nazarite among Nazarites. Jesus called him the greatest among those born of women. John experienced the full sound and fury and loneliness of holy living – believing, doubting, praying, preaching, wondering. His life’s message: get yourself ready to receive the Christ.

Re:Verse passage – Luke 1:5-17 (day two)

They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord. v. 6

This is the perfect story to begin our Advent journey together. Israel was waiting and expecting for deliverance to come in the form of a savior. It had been hundreds of years. Zacharias and Elizabeth were faithful, but they were waiting as well. We don’t know the inner dialogue they had within themselves and each other; but they wanted a child, and it appeared they would not conceive. Yet, they remained faithful.

Fast forward two millennia. My daughter Jessica wanted to make waffles this morning, but realized that the mixing bowl was in the dishwasher. She said she could wait until the cycle was complete to make them, but then realized there was an hour and forty-nine minutes left. She quickly declared that she didn’t have time to wait for them to be clean.

Wanting a child and wanting waffles aren’t even close to being the same; but as I sat down to write this morning, I was reminded of how little patience any of us have to wait on the Lord for things big or small. There are even times when the Lord has a completely different plan for us than we hope or desire, and in the waiting we can learn to want what he wants more than what we want. This is often a painful lesson.

Each Advent season,  we remind ourselves that waiting is part of the journey. God is working out his perfect will among us, and we often are left in a place that doesn’t feel like it is ever going to move. God wasn’t asleep with the nation of Israel, and he is not asleep in your life.

Zacharias and Elizabeth were able to get the desire of their hearts. Jessica, also found a clean bowl and got the waffles she desired.