Strengthening Strength

December 14th

Strengthening Strength

 

 

In the beginning, in the first garden long ago, God drew close. As close as breath. And then with His breath He spoke truth into the hearts of the first human beings: Loving truth. Generous truth- ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden’. Truth that acknowledged the moral compass and volitional will of a people formed in the image of God- ‘but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ (Genesis 2). A true word spoken defining the borders of all that was real and good; Reality hanging on God’s every word.

But Eve, after a time, she listened to another voice whispering doubt into her heart (Genesis 3) and as she began to live in the reality of that doubt Adam soon joined her there adding strength to her weakness (Genesis 3:6). Together they began to live the reality of the lie. And so they hid from each other and from God (Genesis 3:7-8).

And pulsating through millennia this lie took hold of every human heart ever after, and the battlefield for the human soul became belief- faith and trust in Gods word, or allegiance to another voice: any voice but His. Life lived in the Reality hanging on God’s every word, or life lived in the reality of the lie.

Millennia later, after centuries upon centuries of waiting in dismantling darkness, this day arrives like a dawning light. Like a promise fulfilled.

God, once more, draws close and He speaks through His messenger to a teenager from nowhere. And she believes. She lives in the reality of God’s word. Her whole world hanging on His every word.

‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour 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 for ever; 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.” Luke 1: 30-35

Saying yes to God can feel straightforward in a momentary fervour of prayer and the warmth of His presence feeling our faith. But the morning after. When we find ourselves alone with our spinning thoughts, as the cold-world reality of the cost of His calling means, it can all unravel. In the echoing chambers of our mind it’s easy to second-guess ourselves, to question that we’ve heard God’s call correctly, and to succumb to the whispering voice of doubt slithering around our certainty.

In the first garden long ago, before the fall, there was just one thing in all creation that was not good.

“The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18

Carrying the God of the universe in your womb, carry a secret with such potential for strife and pain in your life was a burden too heavy to be faced alone. It was not good for Mary to be alone. She needed help. As the truth of the calling she had been given sank in, Mary knew she needed strengthening. God knew this too.  And made a way.

“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.” Luke 1:36-37

Mary was quick to take the hint. She white-water rushes to this friend who is both a sign of, and encouragement in, all that God has spoken.

“At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.” Luke 1:39-40

Living in the reality of God in the midst of the reality of the world can be an uncomfortable place to be.

Mary. She had questions but she chose to live in the reality of God’s word to her and rush as fast as she could to keep company with the person who she knew could strengthen strength within her. This friend who will strengthen her to live in the reality God breathes into being, a reality contrary to the world whirling all around her as a teenager from Nazareth: the reality of traditional laws that could see her ostracised or even stoned for her pregnancy, the reality of a betrothed who perhaps won’t understand or believe her story, the reality of sceptical looks and sideways glances. Along with all the other practical realities first time mothers must navigate.

“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” Luke 1:41-44

Where Elizabeth’s husband was silenced by doubt and unbelief, Elizabeth brims over with blessing and strengthening words. She is the first to agree with the Angels’s blessing, the first human being to bless this baby born King. She is also the first human being to call Him her Lord. Elizabeth lived in the reality of God’s word and the Holy Spirit lit up her world with the prophetic revelation of who Mary was carrying. And in so doing shone assuring light on the difficult path Mary would travel. Elizabeth lived in the true reality of God’s promise and her faith strengthened Mary’s strength to live there also, despite all the challenges this true reality would bring.

We speak words into the air and they form realities around us. Words can strengthen or tear. Build or fragment. Bless or break. Words can also build belief or dismantle it.

“Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her!”

Luke 1:45

Elizabeth’s faith strengthened Mary’s strength to live in the reality of God’s voice, His words. Her whole world hanging on His every word. What a grace of God it was for God to knit these two women together in His story, bound together by unseen miracles and secret promises of God.

This Christmas lets live in the Word of God, not the whispered words of darkness. Let’s white-water rush like Mary did to those whose faith ignites our own. And let’s speak words to one another that strengthen strength within each of us.

It’s not good for any of us to be alone.