Today’s New Covenant nugget is from Matthew 1:18-19
‘Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.’
While Mary was engaged to Joseph, she returned to him pregnant after a three-month trip…
Joseph was a man of integrity and was horrified at the news. On top of that, Mary had a crazy story that ‘the Holy Spirit did it!’ I can imagine Joseph saying to the Lord, “Lord, I don’t like this! I can’t believe this is happening to me!” No doubt shaken to the core, feeling betrayed, cheated on and lied to, Joseph decided to break the engagement quietly.
As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a Son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21)
The thing that Joseph thought was terrible, was actually the greatest thing ever! Maybe you are facing something very distasteful right now, but maybe that very thing will turn out to be a great blessing!
My parents had two wonderful daughters aged seven and eight and were done with having children… ‘so they thought…’, then one day my dad came home after work and my mom greeted him with, “guess what…?” I was the ‘guess what…’ I changed their lives forever. I am sure that after the shock wore off that they were very happy, but I am also sure that it took some time to process things. I may have been a disruption at the time, but I also know that I have turned out to be a blessing and that both my parents are cheering me on from Heaven right now!
I remember when I was in bible school and our college made our whole class attend an evangelism course in another city… I felt intimidated at the thought of evangelism training, street witnessing as well as memorizing a long soul-winning script. I wanted to get out of it and I complained to the Lord about it, “Lord, I don’t like this!” Little did I know that I would meet my future wife there and that what I did not like at first, would be the greatest blessing of my life.
Maybe there is something in your life that you are very challenged with right now, it may be a relationship, or something with your career, or something that you are very irritated by… something that is causing you to say, “Lord, I don’t like this”, but, I encourage you… don’t be quick to judge it as something bad; give the Lord an opportunity to speak to you about it, give it some time… know that your steps are ordered of the Lord… know that there may be a diamond in the rock that just broke your window, and know that in Christ, all things work together for the good.
I can think of so many things in my life that seemed very negative at the time that have actually turned out to be some of our greatest blessings in life. Take heart today my friend, the light that you see at the end of the tunnel is not a train that is about to run you over, it is the light of a blessing from the Lord for you… have faith… we serve an AWESOME GOD!
In His amazing love, Nick
