Mary responded, I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants. May everything you have said come true.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Luke 1:38<\/b><\/p>\n
IT ALL STARTS WITH AN INVITATION….\u00a0 Invitations to the prom, the Christmas party, New Year Eve\u2019s party, your best\u2019s friend\u2019s wedding, and even your own wedding.\u00a0 Whether the question is ‘will you be my date’ or ‘will you dance with me’ or ‘will you marry me,’\u00a0things turn around upon your acceptance.<\/p>\n
Just like a gentleman would ask you any of the above questions depending on where you are in life, so too does our God.\u00a0 God does not bulldoze himself into our lives.<\/i><\/b>\u00a0 He invites us to the most important and irreplaceable role in this world; and everything depends on our answer.<\/p>\n
Stasi Eldredge takes us through the life of Mary, a teenager who is betrothed to Joseph.\u00a0 The Angel comes to her and gives her the news that she is to have a child—not just any child—but the Son of God.\u00a0 Imagine with me how it was… First of all, the message is being delivered by an Angel—a heavenly being with wings and full of light.\u00a0 Secondly, Mary is a teenager who has not yet slept with her fianc\u00e9, Joseph, (or anyone else for that matter).\u00a0\u00a0And thirdly, this child she is going to have is the Son of God. How is it going to happen?\u00a0 This must have been a conversation to discuss with your family at length before saying yes, right?\u00a0 But not so with Mary.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cMary responded, I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants. May everything you have said come true”\u00a0<\/b>(Luke 1:38).<\/p>\n
Most of us have received invitations to do something for God.\u00a0 But, unlike Mary, we have and still continue to deliberate over our answer.\u00a0 We ask ourselves \u201cIs this really God?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhat if I fail?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI am too young or too old to go on a mission\u2019s trip.\u201d \u201cWhat will my family, and friends think of me?\u201d The debate within ourselves goes on and on until we convince ourselves not to do it.\u00a0 We hide in the words: \u201cI have prayed about it and my heart is at peace.\u201d\u00a0 Wait a minute!\u00a0 Your heart is at peace<\/em> for refusing an invitation to do God\u2019s will?<\/p>\n What would have happened if Mary said “No.” to the Angel?\u00a0 If she had told him that\u00a0she was\u00a0too young to be a mother or<\/em> that she was\u00a0afraid that if\u00a0she got pregnant out of wedlock the elders of\u00a0the village would throw her out of the village and stone\u00a0her to death or<\/em> Joseph will divorce me if he hears I\u00a0am pregnant.\u00a0 All these were valid reasons to say “no.”\u00a0 But Mary chose to trust God and said “Yes!” to the most important and irreplaceable role of her life.\u00a0 She said “Yes” to become the MOTHER OF OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n My sister, you and I have an irreplaceable role to play in this world.\u00a0God is waiting for us to accept that role so that He can use us for His glory.\u00a0 You and I have the power to influence our world for God. \u00a0As our precious authors point out:<\/p>\n \u201cThere is much lifesaving that needs to be done yet, and someone needs to do it. Not in a pressure-filled, You\u2019d better get to it kind of a way. Rather, an invitation. Your feminine heart is an invitation by your Creator. To what? To play an irreplaceable role in his Story. Isn’t that what your Lover wrote there? Some dream, some desire, something so core to who you are it almost hurts to think of it. The very longing is such a part of your being it’s scary even to give it a voice. You may not know the dream itself yet. But you know the longing to play an irreplaceable part. That is a good beginning. <\/b><\/p>\n Ezer<\/em> is woven into the fabric of your feminine heart. You must live this out. What lives, what destinies are hanging on your “Yes” to God?\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n My prayer is that we will all accept this invitation by our Creator in order to become who we are meant to be.\u00a0 Our callings may be different.\u00a0\u00a0Some of us are called to be mothers, wives, teachers, nurses, counselors, prayer warriors, leaders in the church or community, deacons, evangelists, preachers, caregivers, or whatever it is that you are called to do.\u00a0 The most important thing to do is accept this invitation with faith and trust that God will prepare and equip us for this role.\u00a0 Some roles may look like they are less important than others but in God\u2019s eyes each role is equally important.\u00a0 All we have to do is say YES and watch how God will use us.\u00a0 WILL YOU ACCEPT HIS INVITATION?<\/b><\/p>\n In closing I would like to thank you so much for being with us for the past 12 weeks that we have been together on this journey.\u00a0 It has been challenging and transforming but I have enjoyed every moment.\u00a0 I hope your life is no longer the same because you now see yourself as CAPTIVATING<\/b>.<\/p>\n I would love you to join us for the new study so we can take this journey even further with Lisa Bevere\u2019s new book GIRLS WITH SWORDS<\/span><\/em>.<\/p>\n LET\u2019S PRAY:<\/b><\/p>\n Father, thank You so much for taking us through this Bible study.\u00a0 You have taught us so many things throughout these 12 weeks and our lives have been transformed because we know how much You love us and how much You want us to know that we are Captivating and Irreplaceable.\u00a0 May we live what we studied and be doers of Your Word.\u00a0 In Jesus’ Name, Amen.<\/p>\n YOUR ASSIGNMENT:<\/b><\/p>\n What is the role that God wants you to play and you have been putting off?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Be Blessed,<\/p>\n Jackie<\/p>\n Mary responded, I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants. May everything you have said come true.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Luke 1:38 IT ALL STARTS WITH AN INVITATION….\u00a0 Invitations to the prom, the Christmas party, New Year Eve\u2019s party, your best\u2019s friend\u2019s wedding, and even your own wedding.\u00a0 Whether the question is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[181,1455,425,1985,2109,544,554,569,1986,628,1849,698,2108],"class_list":["post-10679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-singles","tag-captivating","tag-ezer","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-girls-with-swords","tag-invitation","tag-jackie-chingawale","tag-jesus","tag-john-and-stasi-eldredge","tag-lisa-bevere","tag-luke-138","tag-mary","tag-mother","tag-saviour","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-2Mf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10679"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10691,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10679\/revisions\/10691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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