In this passage we see the joy that both Mary and Elizabeth experienced. As Christians, we can experience this same joy knowing that Jesus was born, He lived, He died for our sins, He rose from the grave and we will spend an eternal life with Him. We can have joy because God has acted and shown us love and mercy. Even though we are saved, the right relationship we can have with God is recognising that we are eternally dependent on Him. We need to be obedient, as Mary was. Through obedience to God, His Spirit has the opportunity to fill us with humility. We can be humble because Jesus has chosen us to be a part of His family, which has nothing to do with what we have done.

Prayer is talking with God, being still, waiting and listening to what He has to say to us. Prayer is not just a mere list of our requests of God. It is about what is happening deep in our hearts and having a close relationship with God. In this passage Paul says that we are to devote ourselves to prayer, a theme he carries across all of his letters, that we are to be diligent in prayer and pray continually. What does this mean? We need to: (a) cry out to God with all of our needs and requests and to be honest with Him; (b) turn our constant thoughts into a conversation with God; and (c) learn to listen to God in our heart through a discipline and a lifestyle of meditation and contemplation.

We need to grow up in Christ, grow in by loving each other and grow out by bearing fruit - sharing the gospel with others. If we are not connected to Jesus, then we can do nothing in bearing fruit. How important is God in your life?

We have words and sayings that hold true in our lives. In this passage we are reminded to fix the words of God into our hearts and into our mind, but also to teach and write these words down. Just as we need to take in the word's of God, we also need to take in the word's of Jesus and allow them to shape our lives. In John 14:6, Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

God has a plan and purpose for each of us in our lives. He has assigned a race for us to participate in. How committed are we in running that race with endurance, perseverance, passion and patience? There are many examples of people who have gone before us that showed evidence of faith in Jesus Christ, despite their own failings. God knows the struggles we have that hinders us from handing our live totally over to Him. Psalm 23 gives us the encouragement to run the race that God has proposed for us. We need to fix our eye on Jesus, the only one we can truly depend on.