Trusting God when I lack understanding and I don't have all of the answers.
Luke 1:38 Mary responded, "I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true." And then the angel left her.
Luke 1:46-55 Mary responded, "Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. 47 How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! 48 For He took notice of His lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
49 For the Mighty One is holy, and He has done great things for me. 50 He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear Him. 51 His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. 52 He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands.
54 He has helped His servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. 55 For He made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever."
There are not very many people that can say that God has spoken so vividly as he did to Mary, I have not heard of anyone that has knowingly had a conversation with an angel from God, I have to wonder how you or I would respond.
Mary already knew what happens to unwed mothers and now through no fault of her own she is in that predicament. This is a huge change in her life, Mary would never be the same, people would treat her differently, would they ever believe that she didn't do anything wrong? Would she ever have a husband, would Joseph go through with the wedding? Would all of the men shun her? Would she be allowed to live or would she have to run away from home to save her life?
The biggest question was how could she raise the Son of God? There are a lot of books on raising boys these days but they didn't have them in her day and this boy wasn't just any boy. The gospels say almost nothing about Jesus for thirty years of his life. We don't know anything about Mary's parenting skills or what happened to Joseph.
Mary's response to the angel was amazing, she must have still had plenty of questions and reasons to hold back her trust in God but she told the angel that she was willing to allow everything that he said to happen to her.
Mary's song has three sections:
✔ God Always Uses An Ordinary Person (Luke 1:46-49)
Mary's blessing was not something that she earned, just like you and I, she was unworthy and had no special goodness. God chose to favor her by his design, God has never been one to show respect for anyone because nobody has ever deserved it.
If Mary could come back to earth and tell us anything it would probably be to "call me blessed but don't go any further!" She doesn't have an super powers or special status with God, Mary is just another frail, imperfect human being just like all of us.
Mary’s song of praise reflects her total submission and deep gratitude to God for what he was doing through her despite her shortcomings and sin nature. Mary's song was similar to the song of Hannah whose son also came about under special circumstances and whose son would serve the people as a priest. (1 Samuel 2:1-10)
✔ God doesn't use the rich and powerful (Luke 1:50-53)
Mary expands her praise from God's goodness to her to his goodness and power in general to all mankind and especially for his people. Mary shows greater humility in the fact that she didn't dwell on herself but she went beyond herself to include all of us.
God's blessings are for everybody and we should celebrate everyday but especially at Christmas. Have you ever thought about the fact that God uses anybody, no matter what status that we put on people that doesn't make any difference, God will use anyone who trust him.
Video: Mary Did You Know - Pentatonix
✔ God was being faithful to the promises he gave to Israel (Luke 1:54-56)
Israel didn't trust God to come through with his promises, if you were in their shoes and you had heard the promises from previous generations and you didn't see any evidence that they were about to come true during your lifetime then you wouldn't be any different. (Genesis 22:17-18)
Our human nature makes it difficult to let go and trust God despite the evidence, Noah, Abraham and so many others had to look beyond their own reasoning and believe the promise.
Trust is difficult but to trust with all of my heart is a new level of difficult, my own wisdom and understanding gets in the way, I start to analyze the situation and even though I want to trust with all of my heart my understanding makes me fearful and it gives me really good reasons to stop trusting.
My security and my God given reasoning abilities can work against me so that I hold back but I need to remember the next verse tells me that I better not be impressed with my own wisdom. God may ask you to do the unreasonable, my wisdom may clash with his plans to redeem the world and display his glory, his plans may not include me living a safe life to a ripe old age. Mary's plans for her life were so much easier that God's plans!
God has announced great news and promises to me, I need to respond with complete trust despite what my head may think, I need to follow with all of my heart. God's blessings to me are mind blowing. I know that I will inherit a glorious home in heaven someday so I need to trust him and not be focused on having the best life now.
What is your response? Are you blessed or entitled? Can you truly trust God with all of your heart?
