Luke 1:26-28,  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.”  

When you read those words, “You who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you”  what are your thoughts?  At first glance it makes you feel as though, of course, God was with her and she had His favor so everything was going to be great!  Right?  Doesn’t God’s favor mean that you are on the Mountaintop and everything you touch turns to gold?  I mean, here she was pregnant with the Son of God!  That is no little thing!  That’s pretty amazing and had to be somewhat overwhelming!  At first, she probably figured everyone would be so happy for her and that they would bless her and make sure that she was pampered and taken care of, and then…. Joseph’s first thought was that he couldn’t marry a girl who wasn’t faithful even before they were married.  You can almost hear the women in town chatting behind their backs.  Were people seeking the truth or were they being lazy and just accepting the gossip and running with it?  What do you think her thoughts were about giving birth, maybe a private birthing room with several attendants making sure that this Messiah was going to be brought into the world that would ensure His well-being? If she had any of those thoughts in the beginning they were quickly squelched I am sure!

Being favored by God or knowing that He is with you as you walk through life on this earth doesn’t mean that everything just always falls into place.  There are struggles, there are tough times, times of need, times of hard work, times when people want to gossip, and there are times when each one of us in the process asks, “Where are you, God? If you are with me then why do things look like this?  Why haven’t I seen your promises come to pass, or your vindication, or your favor on everything I touch?”  That is where trust comes in!  We would never grow in our walk and faith in Him if everything just always fell into place.  What would you learn?  The best thing to do is to constantly be asking, “What are you trying to teach me, Lord?”  Don’t give up!  Pursue God!  Pursue what He has put in front of you!  Don’t allow people to stand in your way or circumstances!  Seek God’s face and pursue what He is telling you to pursue with your whole heart.  Don’t look in and lose hope ~ look up and ask Him what you need to change!  We tend to be a bit soft when it comes to life at times and we give up when the going gets tough or we don’t seem to be getting the results to persevere, learn something new, and grow!  Don’t settle regardless of your age, whether you are young and inexperienced or older thinking, why bother learning something new?  Are you dead?  Nope!  Obviously not!  So, allow God to stretch you and teach you something new because He isn’t finished with your story!  Maybe that thing you are called to do right now doesn’t seem to fit into what you were thinking, but maybe He is trying to do something new in your life and it is going to require what He has put in front of you to do today!  Follow His leading and allow Him to stretch you into more than you thought possible!  He’s got a plan!  It’s a great plan, but you will miss out if you are settling.  Ask Him today what He is trying to teach you.  Ask Him to help you to not miss a thing that He is trying to do that may be out of your comfort zone!  Allow Him to do a new thing in and through you so you can grow into all He created you to be and then you will know that truly His best is yet to come!