BE IT UNTO ME

Luke 1:38

“Then Mary said, ‘Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”

Holy Lord God, I have read Mary’s response to Gabriel’s announcement so many times over the course of my life. Every time I read it, I marvel at her faith. What prepares someone for that kind of response? I mean, she’d just been told that her life as she knew it would never be the same again. She must have had a myriad of thoughts and fears running through her mind. Surely she was wondering how her parents and Joseph would react – would they believe her – would her friends and family scorn her. Goodness, Father, she even had reason to fear for her life – according to the laws of her day, she could have been stoned to death. Instead, after asking only one simple question, she surrendered her own will in complete abandonment to Yours. What prepares someone for that kind of response?

Somewhere along the way in her short teenaged life, Mary must have developed a deep and profound love for You to trust You so completely, Father.  Oh, Lord God, how her faith puts me to shame. What I see in Mary’s example is that she was willing to trust You with the outcome without knowing what that outcome would be. She was willing to trust You will all her questions and confusion. She was able to let go of her fears. I marvel at that, Lord!  Mary was willing to personally pay the price to be obedient to whatever You asked of her. She gave You her reputation. She gave You her hopes. She gave You all her dreams of the future. Father, YOU chose Mary . . . but MARY chose her response – and it wasn’t an emotional response. It was a faith-filled response born of trust and obedience.

Father, I want that kind of faith. I look at Mary’s example and find my own responses to Your Sovereign will in my life sadly wanting. I firmly believe that everything that happens in my life comes filtered through Your fingers of love and You have either allowed it or ordained it. Yet, even in this past year, events have occurred in my life that have abruptly interrupted life as I knew it . . . or, perhaps I should say – life as I WANTED it. Too many times, Lord, my responses have been emotional instead of faith-filled. I have run the whole gamut of emotion in my responses – from hurt and disappointment to anger and depression.  I thank You for forgiving me when I have failed the tests of faith and obedience that have come into my life. I thank You for using them to teach me that I have the power to CHOOSE my response.

Father, Mary understood humble submission to You when she was only a teenager. I have known Jesus as my Savior for 59 years!! I am far removed from being an innocent teenaged girl. I am sixty-seven years old. I am in the winter of my life whether I like to admit it or not. And, yes, Father – I am blessed with good health. I don’t mean that I feel like I may die at any moment but it’s only realistic to assume the days of life that are behind me are now far greater than the ones yet ahead of me. That fact creates a greater sense of urgency in me. When I recognize my deficiency in some spiritual grace, Father, I often find myself wondering, “if I don’t get a handle on this NOW, will I ever?”  I have EXPERIENCED Your love and faithfulness all these many years. I enjoy Your participating presence in my life in meaningful relationship. You fill my life with purpose and joy. And, yet, Lord, I so often fail to have the simple trusting obedience to Your sovereignty that Mary did.

Father, I want to receive whatever message You have for me today, even if it interrupts and changes my life. I certainly don’t expect Gabriel to fill my room with his radiant light. I have your Word. It shines its light on my sin. It reveals Your will to me. It brings me Your message of hope and peace. It lays out for me the path You desire me to walk. I want Your Holy Spirit to come upon me with His creative power even if it means I must sacrifice my “reputation.”  Oh, Lord God, I want to know You and love You with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. Grant me an unquenchable thirst for more of You. Let me hunger for You more than I hunger for anything the world has to offer.

Representations of Mary with baby Jesus are throughout my home in all my Christmas decorations. Let me look upon them with fresh awareness, Lord, and see them as Your call to daily, trusting obedience to Your will. Let me see them as Your call to chose faith-filled responses to life’s interruptions. Be it unto me as YOU will, my precious Abba. Break the pride in me that resists humble surrender.