Mary, Did You Know?

 It's Christmas Eve and I have this sudden urge to write, so I have stepped away from my family, nesseled myseld into my bed and here I am.  It has been a couple of months since my last post.  I have purposefully taken a break from blogging.  I needed time to become situated in my new life, in my new house with my new job.(I'll blog more about all of my changes later.)

Tonight, I want to write about something that has laid heavy on my heart over these past few weeks.  And what has sparked it was a simple Christmas song, Mary Did You Know.  I have heard this song many, many times.  Infact, it is one of my all-time favorite Christmas songs.  These past few weeks, I have truly been trying to really grasp this song.  I wish I could tell you by now I totally get it.  I completely understand it.  Mary, did you know.  Did you know that you were going to have a Son that was going to save the world?  Did you know that your Son was going to heal the sick and broken.  And the real question...Did you know your Son was going to save us by being beaten, mocked and nailed to the cross?  Did you know?  Yes, Mary did know.  But I still have a hard to grasping and understanding.  I am not a mother so I don't fully understand what it is like to love a child of your own.  I have a very good understanding as I have a mother who has modeled what a mothers love should look like.  I have an understanding what it is like to love a child because God has put many in my pathway that I have truly fallen in love with.  But to actually understand what it is like to love your OWN child, I am not able to understand that quite yet.  Mary had the understanding of what it was like to love her own child.  I have questioned myself, would I have been like Mary.  Would I have said yes to birthing and raising a child who I knew would be taken from me?  Could I have sat there and watched him become hated by so many that they gave Him the death sentense.  Would I have been able to watch Him be mocked, beaten and nailed to a cross.  Would I have said yes?  Mary said yes with no questioning.

Mary was just like me.  I don't know if I will ever understand how she said yes.  But on this Christmas, I want to have the happiness and be filled with the same kind of love Mary had when she birthed baby Jesus.  I want to be like Mary. I want her courage, her faith, her love, and her great understanding.  Mary's love for her son Jesus was just as strong as any mother's love for their child but because of her love for God, she was able to say yes.  Baby Jesus was born to an amazing woman of God.  Mary is the type of woman I want to strive to be.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Ask. Seek. Knock.

Prayer is so powerful.  It's our way of communicating with our Heavenly Father.  It is how we develop that intimate relationship with Him.  I can't even begin to describe what prayer has done for me.  I have cried, laughed, yelled, scream, and simply just talked during my prayer time.  Prayer can heal the sick, heal the heart, sooth your soul, fix the broken, change people's hearts, help the poor, and mend broken relationships.

 

Prayer is the most powerful tool we have as christians but I often feel people get prayer confused with action.  What do I mean by that?  I have heard people say, "I need to pray about it" more as an exscuse for being scared to actually do something about it.  I have been guilty of this.  Don't get me wrong...every decision you make should be prayerfully considered.  But the biggest mistake you can make is to use it as an exscuse not to pursue what you feel God is telling you to do.  With prayer comes action.  "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters." Col. 3:23.  Do you notice the key word?  Work.  It doesn't say, pray with all your heart.  It says, "work with all your heart."  Work means action.  Of course you should pray first, but it should be immiantly followed by action.

 

One example that comes to mind is finances.  I have heard many people, including myself who often complain and pray about finances but was never faithful to tithing.  We are commanded to tithe.  How do we claim to have faith God will come through without action.  Simply praying about it without following His command through action will lead us to disapointment.

 

James 2: 14-17 says, "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."

Luke 11:9 says it best, "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened. Do all of these things and God will bless every part of your life. You will receive blessings you could never have even asked for. "

 

And that my friend is what we must do.  Ask (pray). Seek (listen).  Knock (action).  Prayer must be immediantly  followed by action for you to see answers from prayer.  Don't use prayer as an exscuse not to take action.  The Gospel is to urgent and to important to not take action.

 

Do work!!  That is what God commands of us!