we started out with a really good 1st week of luke last night. it was a sweet time with all the girls back together at our friend b's house.
our study this covered quite a few things, but the one i want to focus on is in luke 1:5-25
which describes the story of zechariah & elizabeth.
many of you i'm sure know the story, but for those of you that don't... a brief summary... zechariah was a priest in the time of king herod of judea & elizabeth was his wife. they were an elderly couple, "well along in years", & as the scripture states, they were "upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments & regulations blamelessly," but they had no children because elizabeth was barren.
last night while discussing this i was struck by one thing. elizabeth was very old & in her time it was very rare for a woman to not have any children. i'm sure elizabeth's heart longed for children. can you imagine the heartache both elizabeth & zechariah went through with not having any children, YET they still were "upright in the sight of God"... they were blameless. i'm sure it would have been easy for them to have been really angry & upset with God for not blessing them with children, but instead they chose to believe in him. they held to their steadfast faith & sought after what the Lord was calling them to do.
this was a lesson i needed to hear.
just because something in my life that i SOOOO long for doesn't happen, doesn't give me any right to not focus on the Lord & what he wants me to focus on. i should follow his commands faithfully without question & what the Lord wills will happen in His time, not mine.
i'm sure zechariah & elizabeth probably thought there was absolutely NO WAY on earth they would ever have a child. God thought otherwise. he had extraordinary plans for the two of them. he blessed them, even in their old age, with a son... john. john the baptist to be exact.
pretty neat, huh? God's kinda cool like that : )
check back next week with more from luke!
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