Rev Gav
Obedience
Luke 1:38. Obedience is a choice and God gives us free will to choose.
Luke 1:38
38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
Reflect
After the angel had spoken to Mary, she answered with these words of obedience. Do not think for a second it was easy to say this — even to an angelic messenger. To agree to this plan was to agree to being subjected to ridicule, danger, difficulty, and heartache. She would have had to explain the situation to her fiancé Joseph. How would he take the news? Would he believe her? And surely, if Jesus was going to be the Messiah —the divine king who was going to rescue the nation of Israel — then life was not going to be straight forward, and yet, Mary did say these words. She was obedient.
Mary’s obedience is important because Luke wants to remind us that Mary still had a choice. Obedience to God’s plan is a decision, and God does not overrule our free will. It is the same for Christians today; we can choose whether to join in with God’s mission in the world or not.
To choose to follow God means to choose to not to follow yourself or anything else. It means putting God’s desires above our own needs and wants, and it is not an easy thing to do — especially in our ‘me’ oriented culture.
Do
Today, say to God, “Whatever your plan is for my life, wherever you lead, I will follow.”
Pray
Holy God
I trust in your promises
and know you want the best for me.
Help me know your will and purposes
for my life and my relationships.
I choose to be obedient to you
this day and for ever.
Amen.
Think
If you are a person of faith, in what ways do you wrestle with God’s plan for your own life?
How easy is it to say to God, “Whatever your plan is for my life, wherever you lead, I will follow.” Why or why not?
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I don’t trust easily. I have spent much of my life depending on no one but myself. Decisions I made were carefully thought out and executed because I had no safety net… nowhere to go if I failed. Still don’t. So to give over trust to anyone is difficult… even God. When I do say to God, your will be done, I cry. From a mish mash of fear, relief, hope, and fledgling trust. But when I say your will be done, I also feel a weight lifted from me. And each time I turn over everything to God, my trust grows. It’s like exercising. The more I do it the stronger I get. I still argue with and question God. And to me, this is an important part of my faith- that I can question it, review it from different angles, pull it apart, be mad at God, yell at him, doubt him, challenge him ( the gall!!!) then come right back to him and curl up in his embrace. Knowing that I will be comforted, loved and accepted. Parts of me still don’t feel worthy of God’s love, but that’s when I am stepping out in faith and believing Jesus when he said all are welcome at God’s table.
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Lisa-Dawn Johnston wrote:
I love this. Beautifully said. Thanks for sharing. x