Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” Luke 1:38
As humans, there are things that we desire and plans that we have set for ourselves that we want achieved. There are also choices that we make in situations that come our way. God who created us has a purpose for which we were created and because He knows us, He has a plan that we can follow to achieve that purpose. The challenge, however, is when our plans are at variance with God’s plan and our often unwillingness to forgo those our desires in order to key into God’s plan and purpose for our lives. Very often, we also pursue goals that do not give glory to God but merely satisfy the world’s expectations of us.
In creation, God made us in His image (Genesis 1:27), with the capacity to make choices but as He wanted us to obey Him so that He might guide us through life and the choices we make, He asked man not to eat the fruit that would give us the knowledge of right and wrong (Genesis 3:22). Despite our original disobedience, the offer is still available for God to lead us if we would submit to His will. Mary and Joseph had their plans of being together as husband and wife. They must have also thought of the wedding to follow after Mary has been betrothed to Joseph, their coming together and having their children. But Mary had this “strange” visitation by an angel of the Lord who told her of God’s plan for her to have a Son, a Saviour of the world. Mary’s reaction after the initial clarifications she sought was that of total submission to the will of God (Luke 1:38). “I am the Lord’s servant” she said, “may it happen to me as you have said” (Good News translation).
Today God is speaking to us, through His word, “The Holy Bible” and revelations through His Holy Spirit, but what is our attitude or response to His request that we leave the path we are currently on that leads to nowhere and follow the path that God has set for us. What is our attitude to abandoning these earthly ‘pleasures’ that becloud our judgement and seek the things of God that brings us everlasting joy and salvation? The Scripture teaches us in Matthew 6:33 to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and then earthly pleasures shall be added. Rather we prefer to seek the pleasures first before the Kingdom (if we ever remember that).
Many times we seek the wrong reasons to serve God. We seek miracles that would transform our lives and make us very comfortable in the society and feel disappointed when our prayers are not being answered forgetting James 4:3 that says “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amis, that you may spend it on your pleasures”. The confidence we have in approaching God, according to Apostle John is “… if we ask anything, according to His will, He hears us.”
As we reflect this season on the birth of the Saviour of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, let us remember always that the success of Jesus’ ministry came from His total submission to the will God the Father. Our success in life would only come from our following the example He has set before us and submit completely to God’s will.
Have a joyful Christmas week as you abandon yourself completely to His will, whatever the cost.
Your brother, Vicar & Archdeacon
S. Igein Isemede.