24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
Like most barren women, Elizabeth struggled for years. “Why me, God?” The angel implied there was much prayer given. They asked may times without an answer. Although it does not say it, I wonder when the time for children was over for them, if they stopped asking. Finally, the angel told them, your prayers are answered.
Because everyone knew Elizabeth couldn’t have kids, her pregnancy was like a big sign to tell everybody that this was not an everyday birth – God was doing something and they’d better pay attention to it. God was doing something way bigger than what an old couple in the Judean hills could do. With God all things are possible.
have heard over and again people talking about their miracle children. There are folks, when doctors say they cannot have children, are blessed to adopt like Judi and I were. How those details were worked out was for us the hand of God. Neither should have been. God delighted us in having them and raising them. The testimony of many is that, even after adoptions, a couple conceives after giving up having one of their own. Know every child is a gift from God.
God waits in order to display His glory, to dispense His grace and to grow our character. Elizabeth says, "The Lord has done this for me." As I read this, I want to question her. I thought that God did this for Himself. A prophet had been foretold in Malachi to be the forerunner for the Messiah. This one was also especially chosen as a miracle baby.
Did you ever run into people that have been blessed by God? Some are so quick to give God the glory and others seem to be so quick to think they are special and better than others because they have been blessed in a special way. Elizabeth certainly could have gloated over the other ladies especially the gossip circle. Those who looked down on her now she could have looked down them, but now God has given her not just a baby and a baby who is especially designed for the preparation of the Messiah, the anointed one of God, who is the son of the Most high. What greater privilege, but instead Elizabeth keeps it to herself and just enjoys the joy that God is bringing to her.
Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than other people nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself at all.”
Elizabeth understood grace and delighted that God would bless her and bless her child, but even more importantly the child yet to come through her cousin Mary.
Application: What would your song of praise include? Do others know?
Prayer: Lord, I praise You for Your hand in my life. Give me the freedom from thinking about myself.
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