May Your Word to Me Be Fulfilled

Surrender. Complete surrender. Losing your life to find it. Where does this start in us?

In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, is this dialogue between Mary (mother of Jesus) and the angel Gabriel. The last thing that Mary says to Gabriel is one that challenges me daily. These words reveal the ultimate attitude and heart of surrender. It reveals a soul completely selling out to the will of our creator.

But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” 

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.” 

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

~Luke 1:30-38 

An angel comes in with an earth-shattering, life-altering plan... a plan for a teenage girl that is engaged to become pregnant. A plan for her to put her's and Joseph's reputations on the line. In the depth of her faithful heart she replies with, 'I am Your servant, Your will be done'. This is the attitude of a surrendered soul, of a selfless heart, of a life given up.

This is something I pray for daily because we need this. This attitude of 'I am Yours'... the thing is, it is for our benefit. All he does ultimately will benefit us in an eternal way, but its always for His glory. Our benefit, His glory... We will never completely surrendered, our life will never be completely lost for Him until we live with the attitude of Mary... until our hearts can mutter the words, Your will be done to me.

I pray this for you reading this, for myself, and for my students.
Remember Luke 17:33, "Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it."