MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/9/2026
8:09 AM
My
Worship Time Focus PT-1 “Mary and Elizabeth: Confirming Angelic Prophecy”
Bible
Reading & Meditation
Reference: Luke 1:39-45
Message of the verses: 39
¶ In those days Mary arose and went with
haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and
greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth
heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was
filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she
exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is
the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is
this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting
came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there
would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.’” (ESV)
This morning I will begin to quote from John MacArthur’s
introduction to the sixth chapter in his first commentary on the gospel of Luke
the title of this chapter is written above in the focus part of this SD.
“Faith is the essence of the
Christian life. At the outset, believers
are ‘Justified by faith apart from works of the Law’ (Rom. 3:28); cf. 5:1;
Gal. 2:16) and thus are ‘sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus’
(Gal. 3:26). Paul wrote of living
the Christian life, ‘the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith
in the Son of God’ (Gal. 2:20). In
John 20:29 Jesus said to Thomas, ‘Because you have seen Me, have you
believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed’ (cf. 1 Peter
1:8). ‘Faith,” notes the writer of Hebrews ‘is the assurance of things
hoped for, the conviction of things not seen’ (Heb. 11:1; cf. 2 Cor. 4:18; Rom.
8:25), apart from which it is impossible to please God (v.6).
“But as still fallen people, though ‘we
walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7), even those whose faith is
strongest experience doubts and discouragement.
The Bible makes it clear that all through redemptive history God has
been the encourager of His people, confirming and strengthening their faith.
“Tasked with the daunting
responsibility of leading the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt, ‘Moses
said to God, ‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring
the sons of Israel out of Egypt?’’(Ex. 3:11).
God encouraged him: ‘Certainly I will be with you, and this shall
be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of
Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain’ (v. 12). Despite God’s reassurance, Moses’s faith
still wavered. ‘What if they [the
Israelites] will not believe me or listen to what I say?’ he demanded, ‘For they may say ‘The
Lord has not appeared to you’’(Ex. 4:1).
Again God reassured His struggling servant:
“2 The LORD said to him, "What is that in
your hand?" He said, "A staff." 3 And he said, "Throw it on the
ground." So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses
ran from it. 4 But the LORD said to
Moses, "Put out your hand and catch it by the tail"— so he put out
his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5 "that they may believe that the LORD, the
God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob, has appeared to you." 6 Again, the LORD said to him, "Put your
hand inside your cloak." And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he
took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. 7 Then God said, "Put your hand back inside
your cloak." So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it
out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. 8 "If they will not believe you," God
said, "or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. 9 If they will not believe even these two signs
or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on
the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become
blood on the dry ground.’” (Ex. 4:2-9) ESV
Gideon, the Judge who delivered Israel from the
oppression of the Midianites, also found his faith was not up to task. Judges 6:16-23 relates Gideon’s encounter
with the Angel of the Lord (the pre-incarnate Christ), who charged him to deliver
Israel:
16 And the LORD said to him, "But I will be
with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man." 17 And he said to him, "If now I have found
favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to
you and bring out my present and set it before you." And he said, "I
will stay till you return." 19 So
Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from
an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot,
and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20 And the angel of God said to him, "Take
the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the
broth over them." And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip
of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened
cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the
unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of
the LORD. And Gideon said, "Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the
angel of the LORD face to face." 23 But the LORD said to him, "Peace be to
you. Do not fear; you shall not die. (Judges 6:16-23) ESV
“As the Midianite army approached, Gideon sought
further reassurance that God would do as He promised. Seeking to bolster his sagging faith, Gideon
made the request for which he is most famous:
“36 Then Gideon said to God, "If you will
save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the
threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the
ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have
said." 38 And it was so. When he
rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the
fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, "Let not your
anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just
once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all
the ground let there be dew." 40 And God did so that night; and it was dry on
the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.” (Judges 6:36-40) ESV
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life today: These are difficult times that I am
living in, difficult because of what is going on with my wife as she continues
to struggle with cancer, although we have gotten some better reports
lately. Difficult because of how our
country is handling the war going on in Iran, one that had to be fought or risk
Israel and US to see Iran’s Nuclear bombs.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: “16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another
and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is
working.” (James 5:16)
3/9/2026
8:53 AM
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