Advent: The Hope of ChristmasShembull

Trust and Obey (Joseph) The position that Joseph is in is hard. To hear that the child that Mary is about to have isn’t his must hurt. As soon as Joseph learns what happened, he makes the decision to get a divorce, but cares too much about her to expose her to that type of scandal.  But just like Mary, Joseph is given a message by the angel of the Lord. And just like Mary, his response afterward was with humbleness and obedience. We can learn alot from Joseph. 1) We can learn that even when things don't go our way, we can trust Him to know what He’s doing. 2) When we obey, it has an impact on others. Initially, Joseph tried to find a way out, but because the angel spoke to him with reassurance, he stayed. Through the text, we get a sense that Joseph loved and cared deeply for Mary. However, I doubt that he never imagined his life would go through such difficult moments.  We see that Joseph obeyed God many times. His obedience was through things like naming his son, “Jesus.” The name of Jesus, given through the angel, means “God is Salvation.” This name would spread throughout the land and the world and become the Gospel. What seemed simple and trivial was actually so important. Even when things don't go our way, we know and can trust that God knows what he is doing. Our role is to simply be humble and obedient to His will and calling. When we are walking in the Spirit, the impact of obedience can be powerful and lead us to more of Jesus.