Then Mary said, ‘Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her. – Luke 1:38 NKJV
Our unbelief hinders our witnessing to the reality of God. We either proclaim our faith or unbelief in the way we respond to God’s Word. We see in Luke how two people responded to messages from the angel Gabriel. He visited Zechariah to announce to him that even though his wife had been barren; she was going to have a child, John the Baptist. To Mary, he announced the miraculous birth of Jesus.
Zechariah looked at the circumstances first and God second. He focused more on what he knew, his reality. The consequence of his unbelief was that he became deaf and mute for a time. It didn’t make God take His promise back; it kept him from enjoying and sharing the glorious news. Mary didn’t question the actual news that she was going to birth Jesus miraculously, only the how. She believed with a wonder filled, child-like faith and submission to God’s will.
To overcome unbelief, we must keep our eyes on Jesus and take Him at His word even when we don’t understand how He will bring it to pass. We pray for Him, the author and finisher of our faith, to help our unbelief, known or unknown. We humbly submit ourselves to His Will, His Way, His Word, from glory to glory!
