Promise Fulfilled

Welcome to today's encouragement from the Our Daily Bread devotional. Our reading titled, Promise Fulfilled, was written by Cindy Hess Casper.

Each summer when I was a child, I would travel 200 miles to enjoy a week with my grandparents. I wasn't aware until later how much wisdom I soaked up from those two people I loved. Their life experiences and walk with God had given them perspectives that my young mind couldn't yet imagine. Conversations with them about the faithfulness of God assured me that God is trustworthy and fulfills every promise He makes. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a teenager when an angel visited her. The incredible news brought by Gabriel must have been overwhelming, yet she willingly accepted the task with God.

Grace. But perhaps her visit with her elderly relative Elizabeth, who was also in the midst of a miraculous pregnancy—some scholars believe she may have been 60 years old—brought her comfort as Elizabeth enthusiastically confirmed Gabriel's words that she was the mother of the promised Messiah. As we grow and mature in Christ, as my grandparents did, we learn that He keeps His promises. He kept His promise of a child for Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah. And that son, John the Baptist, became the harbinger of a promise made hundreds of years before—one that would change the course of humanity's future. The promised Messiah, the Savior of the world, was coming.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Luke chapter 1, verses 26 through 38. In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, Greetings, you who are highly favored, the Lord is with you.

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 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, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever.

His kingdom will never end. How will this be, Mary asked the angel, since I am a virgin? The angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come on 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.

Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age, and she who is said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month, for no word from God will ever fail. I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered. May your word to me be fulfilled.

Then the angel left her. Let us pray, Loving Father, thank you for being trustworthy and for always fulfilling your promises. As we look into an uncertain future, may we also look back and be reminded of your constant faithfulness. It is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening today. My name is Rachelle Traube and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.