Day 6 Advent Devotional | December 9th
Luke 1:30-33
The Angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary: for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom there will be no end.
Wow!! What an announcement. Hey Mary, don’t be scared. You’re going to give birth to the long awaited Messiah. When we read this, I believe that most of us think of how overwhelmed she must have felt. But today I would like to to look at another part of the Angel’s announcement, “for you have found favor with the Lord”. That sounds pretty awesome! Can I have a double dip of that, please?
Well, let’s first define favor. Webster’s defines favor as “ friendly or kind regard; good will; approval; liking”. In Hebrew favor is defined “ to gain the approval of; to find grace in someone’s eyes”. There it is…. GRACE. If there is one thing that we should all know, God is full of Grace. Ephesians 2:8 states “ For by Grace you have been saved by Faith, And this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”.
So it appears that each and every one of us has already received God’s favor by the simple fact that he sent his only begotten son to die on the cross for our sins so that we can have an eternity in his presence. And how do we reap the full blessings of God’s grace? Again, the answer is in Ephesians 2:8…. Faith. Faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus.
What a glorious day to realize that we, like Mary, have favor with the Lord. My prayer is that each of us put our faith in Christ Jesus and receive God’s full blessing.
Prayer: Dear Lord, we praise you as the one true King, the Lord of Lords, the Creator of the universe. We want to thank you for loving and blessing us as you do. We ask that you put in our hearts the desire to live our lives for you to glorify your name. Amen.