I've been thinking a bit about Mary this past week and I've been thanking the Lord for her example.
This is a gal like any of us. Most likely, living days filled with ordinary routine. Of course, a wedding was in the near future and the anticipation of that must have brought lightness to her feet and pitter-patters to her heart. But her feet still walked down the humble streets of a small town, and her heart was the same as ours...in need of a Savior to wash it white as snow.
There is no question that Mary's plans did not include giving birth to the Son of God. I can't help but wonder if, in the days following Gabriel's announcement, she found herself looking at Proverbs 16:9 with new eyes, "A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps".
The news she was given sounded impossible and the question she asked was not asked in disbelief as much as it was wonder. I love how Russ Ramsey describes it in "Behold the Lamb of God":
"The angel explained that all the laws of nature are amendable by the One who wrote them. Mary lived in a world that was made, and the Maker of this world was the sole author of what could and would happen here. The Holy Spirit would overshadow her, and when he pulled that shadow back, this virgin would become a mother to a son. How this would happen was less important than the fact that it would. And God would be the one to do it....The angel's message was as much about the character of the God who favored Mary as it was about what he meant to do for his people through her."
Mary received this news, that would rock her whole world to the core, with words that testify to the grace of God in her life, with words that reflected her deep trust in and dependence on God and His character, with words that should make our hearts yearn to have a "Mary's heart". She simply said, "I am your servant. Be it unto me according to Your word". She said yes. She humbly surrendered her own plans and desires for what God willed, because (as seen in her prayer of praise later on) her greatest desire was to please the Lord....to see Him exalted and glorified!
Hundreds of years later, Betty Stam, a missionary to China, was a wonderful testimony of one who had a "Mary's heart". She wrote:
"Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Your will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all utterly to You to be Yours forever. Fill me and seal me with Your Holy Spirit. Use me as You want, send me where You want, work out Your whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever."
God's "whole will" for Betty's life was her early death when communists dragged Betty and her husband out of their home and away from their baby daughter, killing first her husband and then Betty herself.
And what did Betty think of her own plans and purposes anyway? She says:
"When we consecrate ourselves to God, we think we are making a great sacrifice, and doing lots for Him, when really we are only letting go some little, bitsie trinkets we have been grabbing, and when our hands are empty, He fills them full of His treasures."
Her plans and purposes were like "some little, bitsie trinkets that (she had) been grabbing". MY plans and purposes are little, bitsie trinkets I try so hard to hold onto and yet...when my hands are truly empty of all I think I desire, then I am filled to the full with HIS treasures.
Mary knew this, Betty knew this...O Lord, help my heart to walk in their footsteps as they have followed Yours!
This is a gal like any of us. Most likely, living days filled with ordinary routine. Of course, a wedding was in the near future and the anticipation of that must have brought lightness to her feet and pitter-patters to her heart. But her feet still walked down the humble streets of a small town, and her heart was the same as ours...in need of a Savior to wash it white as snow.
There is no question that Mary's plans did not include giving birth to the Son of God. I can't help but wonder if, in the days following Gabriel's announcement, she found herself looking at Proverbs 16:9 with new eyes, "A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps".
The news she was given sounded impossible and the question she asked was not asked in disbelief as much as it was wonder. I love how Russ Ramsey describes it in "Behold the Lamb of God":
"The angel explained that all the laws of nature are amendable by the One who wrote them. Mary lived in a world that was made, and the Maker of this world was the sole author of what could and would happen here. The Holy Spirit would overshadow her, and when he pulled that shadow back, this virgin would become a mother to a son. How this would happen was less important than the fact that it would. And God would be the one to do it....The angel's message was as much about the character of the God who favored Mary as it was about what he meant to do for his people through her."
Mary received this news, that would rock her whole world to the core, with words that testify to the grace of God in her life, with words that reflected her deep trust in and dependence on God and His character, with words that should make our hearts yearn to have a "Mary's heart". She simply said, "I am your servant. Be it unto me according to Your word". She said yes. She humbly surrendered her own plans and desires for what God willed, because (as seen in her prayer of praise later on) her greatest desire was to please the Lord....to see Him exalted and glorified!
Hundreds of years later, Betty Stam, a missionary to China, was a wonderful testimony of one who had a "Mary's heart". She wrote:
"Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Your will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all utterly to You to be Yours forever. Fill me and seal me with Your Holy Spirit. Use me as You want, send me where You want, work out Your whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever."
God's "whole will" for Betty's life was her early death when communists dragged Betty and her husband out of their home and away from their baby daughter, killing first her husband and then Betty herself.
And what did Betty think of her own plans and purposes anyway? She says:
"When we consecrate ourselves to God, we think we are making a great sacrifice, and doing lots for Him, when really we are only letting go some little, bitsie trinkets we have been grabbing, and when our hands are empty, He fills them full of His treasures."
Her plans and purposes were like "some little, bitsie trinkets that (she had) been grabbing". MY plans and purposes are little, bitsie trinkets I try so hard to hold onto and yet...when my hands are truly empty of all I think I desire, then I am filled to the full with HIS treasures.
Mary knew this, Betty knew this...O Lord, help my heart to walk in their footsteps as they have followed Yours!
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