one word 365 :: Fulfill

New Year's Resolutions always seem so daunting to me.

But focusing on one word. That's doable.

The other night as I was drifting off to sleep the word fulfill came to me and stuck.

I'm looking for God to fulfill some promises in my life. And I certainly have some things I need to fulfill for Him in my life.

I used to think that my story had to have a happy ending tied up with a pretty bow before God's promises could be fulfilled. But I've realized that God fulfills promises right in the midst in the messiest parts of our lives.

I think of Mary and Joseph. She was 9 months pregnant riding on a donkey (how uncomfortable that must have been). No room to deliver her baby. So they her sent to a stinky stable among loud animals and stiff bales of hay. No place to deliver a baby much less the King of the World. But God did just that. He delivered His promised Son right in the middle of a mess.

Imagine being Joseph: engaged to a woman who comes up pregnant...with a child who wasn't his. Yet he still married her and took care of her.

Imagine being a young lady about to be married and you find out you're pregnant. And the man you are to marry is considering quietly calling it quits. 

Yep, that' s a pretty messy situation right there.

Even with that, Mary proclaimed: "I am the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled." And I'm proclaiming the same thing today and will be all year.

"Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill His promises to her!"