Doing Everything On Your Own?

“And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.”
Luke 1:35

I have this terrible habit of self-reliance. I tend to think if that if I want something done right, I have to do it myself. This is simply not the case. I do some things well, but for many things, there are others that do it much better.

This isn’t just confined to my daily life either. I tend to have this unconscious idea ruling my spiritual life as well. I find myself trying to do spiritual things apart from God. It’s a terrible idea, but somewhere deep inside of me, I think I can do it and God has to constantly remind me that I can’t. I cannot do anything of value apart from Him.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, questions the Angel who is bringing her good news. She is wondering how she will bear a child when she is a virgin. This is a logical question and the angel answers it, but also answers an unspoken question.

The angel lets Mary know that The Holy Spirit will come upon her and that is how she will come to bear a child. Then the angel says something else that is interesting, he says that the power of God will overshadow you and therefore the child will be called holy.

In other words, for something to be called holy, it needs the Holy Spirit to produce it. Men and women do not create holy things, only God can produce holy things. He can do it on his own, or He can do it in conjunction with man, but it always involves God. He must be involved.

This is a principle found throughout Scripture. Man, apart from God, is not holy. Man overshadowed by God can be holy. Our holiness must be imputed to us from Him. The Scripture uses the word “overshadow” in this passage which means to completely envelop. This is similar to baptism language, which is immersed. The idea is the we are completely covered by God.

Mary was completely covered by the Holy Spirit and this produced a child that would be called holy, the Son of God. Some want to worship Mary because of her part in this, but that would not be wise. Mary’s part was simply being open to what God wanted to do in her life. Our worship should be centered on God and God alone.

The power of the Holy Spirit is what truly produces something worthwhile in this passage. God’s Spirit and power are at work in the life of Mary and it produces something she could have never produced on her own. It’s only by the Holy Spirit that Mary produces this child. Holiness begets holiness.

Often we become prideful and think that we can produce great things apart from God. We think when good things happen in our own lives, it’s the work of our own hands. This couldn’t be further from the truth. All that we have, all that we produce, comes directly from the hand of God. The Holy Spirit produces the good things in our lives.

Prayer - Father, thank you for producing good and holy things in our lives. We recognize that its not by our will or by our might that these things have come to be, but only by your power that we have anything. Lord, thank you for loving us in a way that has produced amazing fruit in our lives. Amen.