January 31
"I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true." -Mary in Luke 1:38 (NLT)
Mary of Nazareth had the unique privilege of being mother to the Son of God. Yet she was only a teenager when the angel Gabriel appeared to her to announce she had been chosen for this unique privilege. Until Gabriel's unexpected visit, her life was quite ordinary. She had recently become engaged to the carpenter Joseph, and was anticipating a secure married life. But her life was about to change forever. Angels don't make appointments before visiting and Mary found the angel's message puzzling and frightening. Mary didn't doubt the message but asked how pregnancy could be possible? Gabriel told her the baby would be God's Son by the Holy Spirit. She could have refused. Her answer of assent was one God waits in vain to hear from most people: "I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true." Later Mary's prophetic song shows how well she knew God as it is filled with God's words from the Old Testament. Yet Mary's life then became complex, scary, dangerous, and insecure.
Mary was the only person present at Jesus' birth who also saw his death. She witnessed Jesus arrive as her baby son and watched him die as her Savior. The beauty of motherhood became a painful crushing reality to her. Yet she never faltered in her faithfulness to God. When he was a few weeks old she took Jesus to the Temple to be dedicated to God and was met by two prophets, Simeon and Anna, They both recognized her baby as the Messiah and praised God. Yet a large part of her painful privilege of motherhood would eventually involve seeing her son rejected and crucified by those he came to save. If you were Mary and knew all you would suffer as Jesus' mother, would you have given the same response to the angel she did?
Are we, like Mary, available to be unconditionally used by God? God's best servants are ordinary common people who make themselves available and remain faithful like Mary, no matter the circumstances. God's plans involve extraordinary events in ordinary people's lives. Are you willing to be the Lord's servant? If so, you can change the world for the good in remarkable ways!
Prayer: Lord, Thank you for faithful heroes like Mary. Amen.
Meditation For The Day: My Faithfulness can change the world.
Brief Devotions For Busy Lives: Daily Winter Renewal Paperback – November 25, 2017, by Rev. Dr. Mary Johnson (Author)
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