LISTEN

Luke 1:26-38

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

After 400 years of silence, God broke the silence speaking to a couple of ordinary people in Israel. One of them was a young girl called Mary. God sent an angel to her, who told her that she was going to have a baby - the Son of God! Mary was going to carry and give birth to the promised Messiah - the one who would bring about the restoration of the world. How would you feel if God spoke to you like that?

Mary responds with a couple of questions, but then she says “I am the Lord's servant,” “may it happen to me as you have said.”

Mary listens to God and then she says yes.

Are we listening to God? And when He does speak, do we say yes? Sometimes though, it can be hard to know what is God’s voice in amongst all the noise. There are lots of other voices in our heads, or in the world around us. As we spend time reading the Bible and praying, we begin to recognise God’s voice from the others.

Let’s pray:
’Father God, thank you that you speak to us today. Will you help us to listen? And will you help us to recognise your voice from all the others. When we do hear you, will you help us to respond and say yes to you, just like Mary did. Amen’

We would love you to pray for our children and families, that they would grow up learning to hear God and say yes to him like Mary did. We run kids church on a Sunday morning at our 9am and 11am services at Church at St Johns and at our 10am service at Church at St Peters.