The Blessed Virgin Mary found favour with God and submitted her life to birth God’s son Jesus, the Messiah. The Angel Gabriel prophesied to Mary that she would conceive and bear a son named Jesus. “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest…And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:30-33). Mary’s faith was not triggered immediately to believe the prophecy because of a doubt in her mind. So she asked the angel, “how [shall this] be, seeing I know not a man?” (Luke 1:31-33).
The angel explained to her that “the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:34-35). He told Mary that “WITH GOD NOTHING SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE” (Luke 1:37). This further guidance resolved Mary’s doubt and triggered her faith to submit her life saying: “behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word”(Luke 1:38).
The strength of Mary’s faith was the fact that she believed the prophecy even though there was no way she could physically prove the immaculate spiritual conception by “the power of the Highest” (Luke 1:45). She was willing to submit her own life (forgoing the knowledge of her husband) to birth the life of God’s son. Mary also expressed her faith in regarding the angel’s prophecy as the fulfilment of God’s promise to Israel, “our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever” (Luke 1: 54-55; Isaiah 41:8; Genesis 17:7).
Mary’s kind of faith would manifest in situations where one receives prophecies upon one’s life that may seem humanly impossible but has evidence in God’s word in scripture.
4. BELIEVERS’ GUIDE IN FAITH RELATIONSHIP
