Have you heard of the story of Mary and Joseph when the angel of the Lord appeared to her and told her she was going to have a son named Jesus and Mary did not understand why the Lord choose her? When Mary told Joseph about her being pregnant Joseph was upset and did not believe her but an angel also appeared to Joseph in a dream. This will be a story how Mary had to be strong with no choice then I will share my own story of how I had to be strong when I felt weak. I will be telling this story of maybe how it happened in my words. I hope you enjoy it.
As Mary Magdeline was in her house baking bread and flattening it she was humming hymns to herself and was deep in her thoughts. Then suddenly out of no where she heard a loud noise behind her and turned around and saw a big angel of God right before her eyes. She felt frightened but the angel said to her "Don't be afraid, Mary; God has shown you his grace. Listen! You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will great and will be called the son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of King David, his ancestor. He will rule over the people of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end"
But Mary was thinking how could this be for I am not married and am a virgin.
Mary asked the angel "How will this happen since I am a virgin?"
The angel said to Mary "The holy spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most high will cover you, For this reason the baby will be holy and will be called the Son of God. Now Elizabeth, your relative, is also pregnant with a son though she is very old. Everyone thought she could not have a baby, but she has been pregnant for six months. God can do anything!"
Mary said " I am the servant of the Lord. Let this happen to me as you say!" Then the angel left.
Mary took a seat in a chair and marveled at what just happened. She just spoke with an angel of the Lord. She was in shock but was filled with joy. Her only problem was she was wondering how she was going to tell Joseph.
As time passed on and weeks went by Mary continued on trying to find a good way of telling Joseph. She did not know what his reaction was going to be. Was he going to be happy? Was he going to believe her? Was his trust in her going to disappear? All of these thoughts flooded Mary's mind. But again she trusted what her Heavenly Father was going to do what he had promised and that he was going to take good care of her in the midst of this hard time. Even though she didn't know what this was going to be, she just had to be strong though she felt weak.
One night Mary decided to tell Joseph what happened. When she did Joseph suddenly felt a wave of hurt flood over him and distrust. Joseph excused himself and had to take time to be with the Lord and himself to think things over. On the second night Joseph had a dream and an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream "Because Joseph her husband, a righteous man, was unwilling to disgrace her publicly, he resolved to divorce her quietly. But after he had pondered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the one conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth, to a son and you shall give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins".
Can you imagine what Mary had to go through and how she had to be strong? I am sure she got discouraged at times and felt like she couldn't do it or carry on the task that God has given her. I think like her sometimes we go through life and we sometimes feel like we can't do some things because we are either too scared to carry on a task or we just don't feel like it and get lazy. But sometimes even though if we feel weak sometimes we just got to get ourselves to be strong and trust that God will help us get through each and every situation no matter how we feel. "That is why for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak then I am strong"2 Corinthians 12:10
I would like to use an example of mine in my life when I felt weak and decided to be strong. I went on a trip called the Heart of God tour to Egypt, Israel and Jerusalem. That was my dream trip and I am still very thankful to this day that I got to go and that I got to walk where Jesus walked. I want to share that when I was on this trip I was gone for 10 days and through out the whole trip I had a very hard time eating and getting myself to eat something. I felt weak through out a lot of the days. My cousin Carly came with me on the trip and we did have lots of fun and have many great memories from that trip. Like riding camels to pyramids, swimming in the Sea Of Galilee where Jesus walked on water, going where John the baptist grew up, going to Bethlehem where Jesus was born, to the Jordan river where Jesus was baptized (which was amazing).
I am filled with joy as I think about these memories. But even though I was still gluten free and dairy free on this trip I could not get myself to eat no matter how hard I tried. I felt very weak a lot of those days, but because of God's strength he helped me to push on. It might have been apart of because I was far away from my family and in new places everyday or I'm still not sure. But I remember there was this one day where we were at a restaurant and I was trying to eat and I had to step outside with my cousin and I cried because I was so frustrated that I couldn't eat and I was hungry and weak. I relied on God's strength mostly through out that trip. I learned a lot. That's another story of how when you feel weak but then you become strong again only by the power and strength of God. Are there any parts of your life where you had to be strong though you felt like you were weak? How did you feel? What did it teach you?