Life being full of twists and turns is certainly an understatement. We all have examples of our own lives taking a twist here or a turn there. As crazy as some of those experiences are, none of them even come close to the twists and turns in Mary’s life when she found out that she was going to give birth to God’s son. And this was just the beginning of the twists and turns she would go through.
In Luke 1:39-45 we read about Mary’s reaction after receiving this message. She “got up and went quickly to…Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth.” Elizabeth being Mary’s older more mature cousin had more years of experience. It is good when we find ourselves twisting and turning to confide in people who have been through more. This experience can help us regain perspective, give us direction moving forward and help us prepare for the next twist or turn.
We can’t see the future. We don’t know what is going to happen next. What we can do is trust in God’s promises. If He says it, He means it. The difficult part is clarifying what He says. Some people tell us He says one thing While someone else tells us the opposite. To get clarity we need to go directly to the source. That source being the Word of God. We can’t just go there once. We need to consistently and continually go there.
What is the Word of God? The Word of God refers to the Bible and to Jesus. You can get a more in depth explanation here, https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-Bible-Word-God.html. This seem to be two different things that are actually the same. For example, I am Mark, but I am also the words that I’m writing in the email. My thoughts and writing can change over time as I experience more, but God isn’t going to change. He has already experienced it all.
We can trust God to help us through life’s twists and turns. He will direct us if we will faithfully follow Him. If we, “Trust the Lord completely…He will make our paths straight”, Proverbs 3:5-6. We can know how to follow Him through His Word.
I will close with this story about a Christmas twist and turn from Pastor Lee’s message.
A pastor shared with his congregation about a family that was going through some financial difficulties at Christmas. After hearing this, a man and his son decided to take a Christmas tree to the family. While driving to deliver the tree they were hit by a rock slide. The truck would not move and the son was cut by glass from the broken windshield. Car after car drove by and did not stop to help. Finally a couple stopped and took them to get the help that was needed for the boy and the truck. In all of the chaos they never even got the couples name.
A short time later after the truck was repaired and the boy was healing the pastor asked the man if they would deliver a box of food that had been given for the struggling family. When he got to the home with the delivery he found out that they were the same couple that had stopped and helped them. This is a Good Samaritan twist and turn. Luke 10:30-37
Remember God’s promises when twists and turns happen in your life and help others with theirs.