Mary, the mother of Jesus, gave the appearance of an ordinary teenage girl about to get married to the man of her dreams. But her plans all got interrupted as she was anything but ordinary. An angel come to her and said, “You are highly favored! The Lord is with you. You will conceive and give birth to a son…the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:28, 31–32). God gave Mary what seemed like an impossible assignment with the seed of His promise to empower her to bring forth the Messiah, and her response was: “Be it unto me as you said.” Mary made the decision that she was going to embrace God’s promise no matter what it cost her.
Mary was highly favored of God, but it’s not hard to imagine just how difficult it was for her to do what God called her to do. It’s never easy to birth the promises of God. Mary had to change her life plans. She had to face the fact that when she showed up pregnant, the critics and naysayers would accuse her of the worst and that Joseph would almost certainly call off the wedding.
What’s interesting is that as soon as Mary accepted that seed of promise, the Scripture says that she immediately went to her cousin Elizabeth’s house (Luke 1:39–56). Elizabeth and her husband, Zechariah, were a godly couple, and Elizabeth was pregnant with her baby, John the Baptist. When Elizabeth saw Mary, she immediately began to encourage and speak faith into Mary. Do you see that God took Mary out of a very negative environment and put her in an environment where the seed of the promise would be protected and nurtured by the power of God?
You may be going through some difficult times right now, but hear this loud and clear. God says you are also blessed and highly favored. He has chosen you and put a seed of promise in you and given you an assignment that you need to protect. What environment have you put yourself in? Is it an environment with people of faith? Is it an environment that God wants you to be in? Are you careful to protect that seed of promise? You need to get into an environment where it can grow, such as a good church where people know God and speak encouragement to your heart. Get His Word in you so that when you go out to birth what God put in you, you’ll withstand the challenges you’ll face. Protect what He’s given. Birth what He’s put in you. Then you’ll see God do the impossible just like Mary did.