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Angel’s Assurance
Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
Luke 1:30
We are not told how many times God sent Gabriel to people, but we know he was the angel who appears before both Zachariah and Mary. What we do know is the same two words often followed an angel’s appearance, “Fear not.” Isn’t it amazing? God sent a message and an assurance of His word when He showed up. He still does!
Fear Not
When God sent His message in a way that was divinely out of the ordinary to the people He loved, He first consoles their very real fears. He made them. He loved them. He comforted them. These three passages are worth a second look at this pattern: the angel appeared, shock and fear filled those who were the subject of God’s message, and the angel spoke, “Fear not.”
- Mary: Fear not…baby Jesus will come
- Working Shepherds: Fear not…Jesus has come, today a Savior is born!
- Women at the tomb: Fear not…Jesus is alive and He will come again!
Sister, Fear Not
What’s that thing God has been telling you? Maybe it’s something straight from God’s Word you’ve chosen to rationalize in your life. Or, maybe it’s more personal and something the Lord has been nudging your heart toward, but you’re afraid. No matter what the Lord is directing or convicting you toward, remember, He made you, He loves you, and He will comfort you. Fear not.
Found Favor
Gabriel comforts Mary with the same assurance of her position as already spoken atop of the same meeting. She had found favor with the Lord. It’s was worth repeating then, and it’s worth repeating now. You, when you met the Lord, found His favor, too
A good man obtaineth favour of the LORD: but a man of wicked devices will he condemn.
Proverbs 12:2
For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.
Psalms 5:12
God’s Word is as good today for the same purpose used by Gabriel when he came to Mary. If you need the comfort of the Lord in your life and heart, get into His Word. My son mentioned something regarding the character, the person of, God and how he wasn’t sure of Him in that way. My reply was much the same, get into His Word. If we want to know who God is, if we want more of His goodness in our lives, we need to spend time with Him and know Him more.
Chosen & Favored
We know Mary was no stranger to God coming from a Jewish family. We know Mary was highly favored by God, because that’s what Gabriel tells her (and us). But do you know what that means? Was Mary more special than any other woman and so God chose her for Jesus’ earthly mother, whereby dubbing her highly favored? Did Mary find favor in God’s sight because she obeyed Him and loved Him beyond those around her? What does highly favored mean here in Luke 1:28?
I’m about to leap off of my seat after asking the Lord to show me more, to learn more about highly favored. The Greek word for favored is translated, charitoo and I’ll do my best here with the phonetic pronucnciation
charitoo (ha lee toe’) You may see that root here for charis which is God’s grace.
Charitoo, twice
This word is used only twice in scripture. Usually, for me, I can do a word search and find the similarities and the thread of continuity, but I will be honest and tell you this one was a struggle. At the risk of being redundant, we will look at this verse again from which Gabriel reiterates Mary’s favor.
And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored…
Luke 1:28 (a)
And now, the only other verse where we see this word. It’s in Ephesians 1:6 but we need to see the more of the story so we will read beginning in the third verse.
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Ephesians 1:3-6
I hope you’ll read this out of your own Bible, and go ahead and do some searching with God’s Word in your hands and heart-always, always. And right there where we can so easily pass it by is the reason I am over the moon with my God and Savior in this moment, and I bet Mary was too!
God Amazes Me
Verse six says this: To the praise and glory of His grace, wherein He hast made us ACCEPTED, charitoo’, ha lee toe’! Sisters, did you get it? Mary was chosen by God and she was highly favored because of GOD’s grace over her, by God not my something she had done. Why am I so humbly excited? Because that is ME TOO! I am chosen by God-from before the foundation of the world- and favored by Him unto His Beloved. I’m left in adoration and running out of words, but as my dear friend would say: OH MY STARS!
Don’t just sit there
I hope you don’t just sit there but you know who you are: chosen and favored by God! This IS Christmas, friends. It’s about Christ. It’s about Grace. It’s about Love. It’s about Mary being chosen and favored by God. It’s about Jesus in you, because you are chosen and favored.
Heaven came down over this girl today. Praise the Lord.
See you tomorrow!
