Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.
Scripture Reading: Luke 1:38
Devotional: Mary's statement of faith is the model to all of us who would follow Jesus Christ. Perhaps we do not focus enough in the Protestant Church upon Mary, not only as the Mother of God, but also as the foremost example of faith, i.e. the yielding of one's life to the will of God.
Such faith involves several things of supreme importance. One of these is the capitulation, or surrender, of one's life completely to the will of God. Old time preachers used to speak a lot about “surrendering to the call of God”. This may sound antiquated and maybe even overly dramatic, but this surely is an aspect of obedient faith. Sometimes our will and God's Will concur, but when they don't, we must yield to God's.
Then there is generally lack of details particularly in regard to our future if we surrender our lives to God's Will. Notice, very few details about Mary's life of obedience are shared by the angel with Mary. That is where trust and obedience - when the unexpected happens - are of supreme importance when one yields one's life to God's Will.
Related to this is the absence of any promise of success or security or achievement. Mary had to watch her son be executed. At His death, Mary was given by Jesus into the care of His disciple, John. Surely there was no way to anticipate such, so the only guarantee given to her faith is the intimate union with God through Christ throughout eternity.
Faith like Mary's is surely what puts us in a right relationship with God. Being moral or ethical or responsible are not ways God has ordained to be the source of our reconciliation with God. That source is faith, and faith alone. “I am the Lord's servant.”
As we anticipate the birth of our Christ, no more appropriate occasion can there be for self-examination in regard to our faith journey.
Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.
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