“God Can Bless Anybody!”

“God Can Bless Anybody!”(I Sam.1:1-8a).
Mary was a little known girl from a lowly background. To confound matters, – judged by societal standards – she was a wayward girl. She was a girl who became pregnant before marriage. It was such a shameful act, such that Joseph her bethrothed wanted to divorce her in secret. But Mary’s pregnancy was not the result of waywardness; her pregnancy was by the Holy Spirit (Mt.1:18-19). She was “highly favoured” by the Lord. She found favour with God (Lk.1:29-30).
Even Joseph the foster father of Jesus was an ordinary (cut and nail) village carpenter. Jesus’s parental background was possibly one of the reasons why the prelates of his time underrated and despised him. When he exhibited so much wisdom, even the people of his hometown still wondered, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary…Where then did this man get all these things?(Mt.13:53-56).
Since God’s ways are not our ways, Jesus may have been despised and rejected by men, but “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father “ (Phi.II2:9-11).
Yes, my friend, God’s ways are not our ways. They did not only despise Jesus, the hated him and killed him. But that was not the end of the story; it was just a tragic chapter in a comic book! Surely, “it is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes”(Ps.118:23).
Things are not always the way they seem. The conclusions that are drawn from your situation are just fragments in the unfolding plan of God. Hannah realised that our times are in God’s hands and she burst forth in prayer and praise to God: “…The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor…”
It is good to rejoice in the Lord because through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, he has freed us from the dungeon where sin kept us captive. Hallelujah!
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ thank you for taking us out of the miry depths of sin and seating us where you reign. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.