Day 6: AN INTIMATE TIME WITH GOD  Luke 1:24-25

I was tempted to subtitle this section: If you don’t post on Facebook about it, does it even happen? 

Elizabeth’s response to the fulfillment of God’s promise and her prayers is a bit different than we would expect. Instead of running out to tell so many, she secludes herself for five months. 

Perhaps it was because she wanted to avoid all of the arguments and pushback from people telling her that she was too old to be pregnant and that it wasn’t safe for a woman at her age. 

Maybe.

But I think it was also so that she could just spend time celebrating with God, letting Him heal the hurt of so many years. As God forms the child in her womb He also touches her heart. Every kick she feels reminds her that she is not forgotten, that she was heard. 

She would share the blessing.

But first she would experience the depth of it for herself.

Before she heard from others about their experiences, she would allow hers to grow.

So often we are quick to share, and while many times this is noble, it is often too quick. We rush the tree to grow, not giving time for the fruit to ripen. 

We offer it to others before we have ever tasted it. 

We must make sure that our desire to share the fruit isn’t to show our own value, but the work of God. Just as Zacharias focused on his circumstances, Elizabeth too could have run out to validate her own. 

But she waited. 

She met with God, she celebrated.

She had experienced the unthinkable.

And she was about to walk her young cousin through the same. 

REFLECTION : 

Morning Pause: What are some ways that you have seen God answer your prayers as of late? Did you take time to spend with God in praise of those blessings? 

Afternoon Pause: In the midst of your day, how has God dealt favorably with you?

Evening Pause: Take some moments, just before bed, to spend with God in the blessings that He has given you.