And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35, NKJV). I’m going to pair this with Psalm 91:1, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty” (ESV).

Did you hear the connection in the verses? The believer abides in the shadow of the Almighty. Christ was formed in Mary when she was in the shadow of the Almighty. I was thinking that’s when Christ is formed in us, as we abide in the shadow of the Almighty. What does that mean?

Abiding is dwelling. When you abide in Christ, then He is your place of rest, provision, protection, refuge, comfort. There are other scriptures about being in the shadow of His wings. We would be in His shadow if He were covering us. It’s an extra layer, or extra picture, of being IN Christ—sheltered, warm, kept close.

It’s not a place of cowering. It’s a place of rest and rejoicing. Psalm 63:7, “Because You have been my help, Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice” (NKJV). God made our fleshly, human bodies so that they grow in our sleep. That’s not just when we are young, but even as we are old; it’s as we sleep that cells grow. It’s when repairs are made. We are built up as we rest. That’s how we were created.

We abide in Christ. Our lives are hidden in Christ. We rest in Christ. As we keep near Him, keep our eyes on Him, we become more like Him. If you walk with the wise, you will grow wise. That’s how Christ is formed in us, as we rest in Him, as we trust, as we rely on Him, as we live by faith, as we walk under the cover of His wings, so that we fear no evil, so that we see Him and not our circumstances.

I will continue this thought with the next lesson.