Let it be Done unto Me According to your Words
Study Text: Luke 1: 26 - 38
Introduction:
Mary is a good example to understand the meaning of surrendering to God’s will.
We often sing the song “I surrender all”. But in truth, how much of that ‘all’ part do we surrender to God. Do we have areas in our life that we are not fully ready to give to the Lord?
We often say that we submit everything to our Lord, but there are strings attached to certain areas of our life and we are holding on to them so tight and not ready to let go.
God chose Mary to be Jesus’ mother only because she was willing to submit to God. She had a close relationship with Him. She was ready to do anything for God without asking questions. She gave her womb, her life, everything to God not out of fear or duty, but of mere love towards God. Why is it that we are not able to surrender our lives like Mary?
One obvious reason is because we do not trust God completely with our lives. Though we say we do trust Him, we are not comfortable to let go everything. We have fears about our future. We have lot of questions in our mind before trusting God completely.
Mary was betrothed to Joseph and she could have rejected God’s purpose thinking about her life and how the society will react to the fact that a virgin is pregnant. Still she obeyed God.
Looking through the Bible, we can see many people who were willing to submit their lives to God no matter what and God has done mighty things through them.
1. Moses obeyed God in leading the people of Israel from Egypt to Canaan without knowing how he is going to do that.
2. Hanna submitted her life to God for a child without knowing when that will happen.
3. Abraham and Sarah waited for their promised child without knowing how it can happen in their lives.
4. Joseph trusted God’s purpose without knowing why circumstances happened against him.
5. Paul trusted God without knowing where he was led to.
And when you look at their lives, you can see that God did miracles through their lives just because they surrendered everything before God. We shall be discussing the topic under three subheadings:
1. The Unforseen Visitation
2. The Unexpected Revelation
3. The Unconditional Submission
1. The Unforseen Visitation:
Mary was visited by an Angel of God with a Message of eternal purpose. This was a Divine Visitation, and it came at a time when she least expected it, unforseen, unannounced and unprepared for.
A divine visitation is when God brings a man into a practical encounter with His presence, glory and power. It is God’s intervention or appearance in your life, your situation, or your circumstance.
One visit from the Lord can change your life forever. One divine visitation to Abraham changed the course of his life. By that visitation, Abraham left his father’s land to a land that God told him to go to. A divine visitation can cause you to embark on your divine assignment. Genesis 12:1 - 6
One divine visitation to Mary resulted in the birth of Jesus. By that divine visitation, Mary, who was a virgin, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. This means that by a divine visitation, impossible can become possible.
One divine visitation to Moses turned him into a great prophet. A man who cowardly ran away from the attack of Pharaoh later came back to Egypt to do a great and mighty exploit. God used him to deliver the nation of Israel from their bondage. Exodus 3:1 - 10
One divine visitation made Isaiah a great and mighty prophet. He considered himself as a man of unclean lips when he saw the Lord. However, the angel of the Lord anointed his tongue and he became a mighty prophet. He gave so many prophecies about the birth of Jesus Christ and His exploits on earth. One divine visitation can turn you to a great vessel in God’s hands. Isaiah 6:1 - 8
One divine visitation on the day of Pentecost resulted in the birth of the Church. By that visitation, three thousand were added to the church. That divine visitation turned the timid Peter to a bold Apostle. The same man who denied Jesus Christ three times became a fearless preacher of the gospel. This shows that by a divine visitation, you can be empowered by the Holy Spirit for great and mighty exploits. Acts 2: 1 - 4
That God assignment that seems impossible can become possible and very easy to do when you experience Divine Visitation.
Even though it is God who determines who to visit and when to visit the person, there are attitudes and qualities that will position a man as a suitable candidate for Divine Visitation.
These include: a desire to walk in the righteousness of God, a heart of humility, a heart of gratitude and a willingness to submit to the will of God selflessly and faithfully.
Anyone looking unto God for Divine Visitation in one area or the other in his or her life must be ready to sacrifice to pay the price. Your desire or prayer may not produce the visitation, but if it is going to happen, the attitudes and qualities mentioned above must not be missing.
2. The Unexpected Revelation:
At the Divine Visitation of Mary, she received an unexpected salutations. No one has ever saluted her in such a manner before, and she was not expecting such a blessed salutations from anyone, and she could not reason out why she amongst several women could receive such salutations. That was a manifestation of selective Divine favour.
Mary, on the other hand, was told by the Angel that she, as a virgin, would conceive and bear a Son.
Even though, this was an unexpected revelation, but it had been planned and programed by God from the foundation of the world.
Instead of assuming it was not possible, because she had never known a man, she asked the simple question, how can this happen when I haven’t ever known a man? She was willing to submit to the will of the Lord completely and was asking for directions and information.
Mary was willing to see how the Lord would perform this miracle. Unlike Mary, when the same Angel visited Zacharias with the same message, he assumed it could no longer be done. We must be careful not to let our personal biases and disappointments in life jeopardize our ability to let the Lord do his own work in our lives.
When we are given counsel by the Lord through His Ministers, do we doubt, or scoff? Or do we ask how we can accomplish what he has instructed us to do?
Even when the revelation was troubling to her, Mary submitted herself to the Word of God. Luke 1:29.
Even though Mary might not comprehend the full magnitude of the heavy responsibility upon her, she still accepted it and kept all the sayings in her heart Luke 2:19,51.
On the other hand, there are others who challenge the Word of God instead when it troubled them. What is our response when the Word of God troubles us? Do we question God like Gideon (Judges 6:13)? Do we run away from God like Jonah (Jonah 1:3)? Or do we submit like those added to the Lord’s church on the day of Pentecost (Act 2:37)?
Mary submitted herself to the Word of God even if it seemed unbelievable to her Luke 1:34.
Her question did not stem from unbelief, but from wanting to find out the means of conception, and she believed the things which were told her from the Lord Luke 1:45.
On the other hand, there are others who challenge the Word of God instead when it seemed unbelievable to them. What is our response when the Word of God seems unbelievable to us? Do we mock God like Jehoram’s officer (2 Kings 7:2)? Do we doubt God like Zacharias (Luke 1:20)? Or do we have faith like Peter even though our experience tells us otherwise (Luke 5:5)?
Mary submitted herself to the Word of God even if it caused embarrassment to her (Luke 2:5).
Can you imagine this heavily pregnant young lady travelling from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be registered for a census? She would probably run into many familiar faces along the way and there might be some gossiping on how she became pregnant even before her marriage with Joseph. She would also have to deal with real fears of losing her husband (Matthew 1:19), or even losing her life.
On the other hand, there are others who challenge the Word of God instead when it caused embarrassment to them. What is our response when the Word of God causes embarrassment to us? Do we persecute those who correct us like Herod (Mark 6:17)? Do we deny our Lord like the rulers (John 12:42)? Or do we repent of our sins like David (2 Samuel 12:13)?
3. The Unconditional Submission:
The submission of Mary to the Word of God can be described as an uncommon and unconditional submission. It was done with sincerity and sacrifice.
This should be our response anytime God’s word comes to us. This is an expression of faith. Our answer to God’s word should be “amen”. We should dare to believe God. There is nothing that we lose when we believe God. God is worth believing. He is the faithful God. He has a proven track record that we can count on.
In the eyes of men, Mary looked foolish to believe God’s word. How can a virgin conceive? This might be the question that maybe her friends and family members might have been asking. But Mary dared to believe God’s word, and there was a performance of the things that she believed. Her believing qualified her for performance. Luke 1:45
God’s word is true; and it will surely come to pass. It has power to deliver to you anything that it talks about. Maybe like Mary, God might have spoken some big things to you that looked far-fetched in the natural by your abilities and capacity. But you can be encouraged to believe God like Mary did. It is your believing that qualifies you for performance. If you don’t believe, there will be no performance; performance is for those who express their faith in God’s word.
God is a big God who is specialised into doing the impossible. Dare to dream big dreams. If your vision does not require God, then it is not really a vision; it is just unnecessary excitement. Learn to take God at His word, irrespective of what things in the natural may be saying. The more you focus on what God has said, the more the obstacles and mountains melt and give way.
Mary knew deep in her heart that life is gained by losing it. God had overcome the world, and yet His overcoming power would show up in her life only to the degree that she yielded herself to God. We have a free will, and God will not overpower us with His invitation to follow Him. He invites us to willingly lay down our lives, to give up our rights and our plans; however, the choice is ours.
Jesus offers tough truth to his disciples, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 16:25
Conclusion:
These are great lessons we can learn from the life of Mary. She may not be special for being a virgin, because many virgins will also be in the land at that time.
But her simplicity, sincerity and challenging attitude and disposition to the Word of God, and the willingness to see His will fulfill in her life even against her personal plans are second to none.
We can pray and trust God to work upon our hearts and our life to have the humility and unconditional submission to the will of God after the order of Mary.
