Bible Study About Mary, The Mother of Jesus

This week I read about Mary, the mother of Jesus in my devotional.
Here is what happened when God sent the angel Gabriel to speak to Mary.

Luke 1:26-38
The Birth of Jesus Foretold
26.In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,
27.to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary.
28.The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."
29.Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
30.But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.
31.You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.
32.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,
33.and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."
34."How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"
35.The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon 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.
36.Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month.
37.For nothing is impossible with God."
38."I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.

Gabriel told Mary that she was highly favored by God.

I looked up in the dictionary the meaning for the word favored.
favored:
treated or thought of with great kindness or partiality;
preferred above all others and treated with partiality

I looked up the meaning of the word "highly" in the dictionary also.
highly:
in or to a high degree; extremely; with high appreciation or praise; admiringly, more than adequately; generously

Imagine with me for a minute, how you would feel if God had Gabriel say those same words to you. Imagine hearing God say, "You are so special to me that I give My One and Only Son to you. Love Him, care for Him, until He comes back home to be with Me."

Think of your own children. Who in your life would you honestly, without hesitation be able to say those same words to?
As a parent, I am very choosy who I let take care of my children. I can't even imagine having to decide who would raise them for me in my absence.

Yet,God trusted in Mary so much that He let her not only give birth to His precious Son, but He trusted her to love Him and to raise Him for the time He spent on the earth.

It's so humbling to me.

I wonder if Mary felt up to the task right away, or was she scared?
Obviously God knew she was up for the challenge. I think so often times in life, God trusts us so much more than we trust Him. He believes in us even when we don't believe in ourselves.

Mary was definitely a woman blessed by God. Her walk with God could not have been easy. From the time the words left Gabriel's mouth, Mary was faced with challenges. Challenges that would cause most people to crumble from the pressure. At the end of His short life, she had to watch the son she gave birth to and loved be ridiculed, scorned, and crucified. I cannot even begin to comprehend the pain she must have felt deep inside her heart.

Imagine the Son of God calling you "Mother".
Even as He was hanging on the cross in unimaginable pain, He was still concerned for His mother.

John 19:25-27
25.Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
26.When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son,"
27.and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

She was His Momma.She was so dear to Him. He wanted her to be taken care of by someone He loved and trusted in His absence, just like His Father had done for Him.

The devotional book ends the section on Mary with with this prayer.

"My soul is full of you, my God, and I cannot hold back my gladness. Everyone who sees me will call me blessed because you have noticed me. You saw my lowliness and my need and filled my emptiness with your presence. Form your likeness in me so that, like Mary, I can bring you into a world that desperately needs your love."

Ask God to make you a woman like Mary. Give your life over to God. Let people see Jesus through your life. Pray for the grace to be like Mary who said, "I am the Lord's servant,may it be to me as you have said."



Luke 1:28
The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."

Bible Study About Elizabeth And Zechariah

I love the story of Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah found in the first chapter of Luke.
Elizabeth is the woman I read about this week in my devotional.

The part of their story that I want to share with you today starts with Elizabeth's husband and the angel Gabriel in the temple of the Lord . Here is a small part of the conversation that takes place between them.

Luke 1:11-13
Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.
When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.
But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.

Luke 1:18-20
Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years."
The angel answered, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.
And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time."


Zechariah would not be able to speak until the birth of his son, because he did not believe what Gabriel told him. His doubting caused him months of silence.

Putting myself in his shoes, I'm sure I would have been overwhelmed by the encounter with Gabriel. I would probably even be a little mad at myself for having so little faith when God Himself sent an angel with a message for me!
I would definitely have been frustrated not being able to speak. Trying to make hand signals that people could understand, or having to write every single word I wanted to say. (Which let me be honest, I always have a lot of words to say.)

Imagine how much you would have to say after an encounter with Gabriel.
Imagine Zechariah having to explain to Elizabeth why he could not speak for so long!

Just like Gabriel said, Elizabeth became pregnant and gave birth to a son.

Luke 1:57-64
When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son.
Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah,
but his mother spoke up and said, "No! He is to be called John."
They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name."
Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child.
He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, "His name is John."
Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God.

What touches me the most about this scene is that Elizabeth and Zechariah's family and friends cannot understand why they would go against tradition in the naming of their son. It doesn't make any sense to them.

That is still true today. So many times when we are being obedient to God in an area of our life, the people closest to us do not understand our desire to follow the path less traveled. It may confuse them, or sometimes even make them angry at us. They just simply don't understand, because God is not speaking to them in that same area of their own life.

In the case of Elizabeth and Zechariah, their family and friends are so confused by her wanting to name their son John, read again what Scripture says happened.

Luke 1:61-62
They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name."
Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child.

These verses provide us a glimpse of God's sense of humor.

Notice it says they made signs to him?.....

But "they" weren't mute.... and Zechariah was not deaf.

They were so confused by Elizabeth declaring something that went against tradition that they were not able to speak!

It makes me laugh out loud just picturing the entire scene play out.

I know in my own life I have done things in obedience to God that have made some people look at me like I was crazy. It's comforting to read this story and realize I am not alone; the same thing has been happening to people following God since the beginning of time.

Ecclesiastes 1:9
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

While thinking about how frustrating it must have been for Zechariah to go so long not being able to communicate with people the way he wanted to, I was reminded of a funny scene from When Harry Met Sally. Think of Zechariah as you watch it, and thank God for His sense of humor and the gift of laughter.:)

Genesis 21:6
Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me."

Enjoy!:)