Luke 1:38 (NIV) “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Christmas is near and as we read the story of Christmas in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, we are inspired all over again by how wonderfully and gloriously God laid out His plan of salvation for us. I can’t even imagine the frightful yet exhilarating experience that Mary had of having God's messenger, Gabriel, appear to her to share the most impossible and amazing news ever told to anyone. The angel Gabriel told her that the Lord had chosen her to conceive and give birth to a son who would be called the Son of God! In other words, this would be the Messiah that the Jewish people anticipated for hundreds and hundreds of years. After hearing the news, Mary's response was the words of the verses above. “I am the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” Her only question to Gabriel was how this could happen since she was a virgin. She never doubted and never questioned what God had decreed would happen. To put her words another way, she was saying, “may God's will be done.”

There were a lot of reasons for Mary to refuse, at least initially, the news that Gabriel gave her. For one thing, she was engaged to be married. How would she be able to explain with any credibility what she had just been told by an angel? There was a very real possibility that her fiancé would not believe her and break off the engagement. It turned out that he would have done that if God had not intervened. Another issue was the fact that she would be pregnant without having a husband, which would imply that she had been promiscuous and had a sexual relationship outside of the confines of marriage. In her day, that was punishable by death, not to mention that her reputation would be ruined. But none of that stopped her from immediately saying, “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Mary put her personal life and what she was planning on the back burner to receive the amazing privilege of giving birth to the Messiah. As awesome a privilege as that was, the cost to her personally could have been too high except for the fact that the hand of Almighty God was in it, which meant that she would be protected from all of the negative circumstances attached to what the Lord was going to do through her. But she received what the Lord’s will for her life was without knowing that.

Now we know that Mary is considered a blessed woman for being the one chosen to give birth to Jesus, the immaculately conceived Son of God. Instead of having her reputation ruined, she has gone down in history as a great woman of God and that’s how it is when we submit to the will of God no matter what the perceived negative implications of doing it may be. There is no question about the blessings that are attached to being obedient to God’s will and in being submissive to Him enough to say like Mary did, “I am the Lord's servant.” Be the Lord's servant like Mary was and you will enjoy the blessing of God’s favor on your life and will also have the privilege of being used for His glory. There is no better and more fulfilling way to spend your life than that!

Pastor Joey Vazquez