I think you’ll agree that it’s easy to feel ordinary. We go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to bed, get up the next morning, and do it again—it feels so ordinary. I’m sure that’s how Mary, the soon-to-be mother of Jesus, felt—like just another teenage girl about to be married. But her plans all got interrupted as she was anything but ordinary. An angel came 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, and her response was: “Be it unto me as you said.”
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. Mary made the decision that she was going to embrace God’s promise, no matter what it cost her.
As Mary did, you need to know that God He didn’t call you by name, He didn’t choose you to be His child, and He didn’t give His life for you so that you would be ordinary. He called you to be extraordinary. You are set apart by God. He has assignments for you to do, and He equipped you for your unique assignment. He has good plans for your life, and He put everything in you that you need for anything He calls you to do. Your gifts and talents, your personality and disposition—everything is just right.
You may be going through some difficult times right now, but hear this loud and clear. You’re extraordinary because God chose you to be extraordinary. He says, “You’re My child. There’s no one else like you.” He put a seed of promise in you, and you need to protect the assignment He’s given you. 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. Remember that He put His power in you to accomplish the assignments. Protect what He’s given. Birth what He’s put in you. Then you’ll see God do the impossible just like Mary did.