Luke 1: 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.”
Imagine what must have been going through Mary's mind when she was told that she would be with child despite the fact that she was a virgin. In those days girls who became pregnant out of wedlock could be stoned. It was totally frowned upon to be impregnated by any man other than the husband. And who would believe her.
" The Holy Spirit came upon you and put you in the family way? Yeh right!!"
And yet when the angel Gabriel stood before her as The Messenger from God she had the immense courage to say "OK". In Luke 1 she says
"I am the Lord's servant, may it be to me as you have said."
We can see in Mary's Tale, in her story, that she must have been extremely fearful of what the world would think of her; what the world would do to her. Yet she took on the role of being the mother to the Messiah with complete faith in God. She believed without a shadow of doubt that she was doing as God wanted.
It is probably fair to say that in the Western World, as Christians we have it relatively comfortable. Yes we have ridicule occasionally from those who really just don't "get it" but do we really suffer the backlash that Mary could possibly have received. It seems much harder to be a Christian in other areas of the world where religious conflict exists. Where Christianity is a minor religion Christians can suffer horrendous persecution; violence, attacks on their homes, imprisonment, even death. Again in our world of relative comfort it is hard to picture life under these extremes. Would our faith survive the test?
This isn't to trivialise the hardships and pressures of Christians in countries with religious freedooms. The worries of paying bills, keeping a roof over the heads of our loved ones can still weigh us down. God still tests our faith. But we must remain strong in our trust in God. It is amazing that we can off load our burdens onto God and He can sort them out for us. We can rest in His shadow if we just ask Him to.
God will only test our faith to the point that He knows we can take it. He won't try to break us. So for those who have always had life easy, never really had to face the downs in life, perhaps God hasn't felt that their faith is strong enough.
In Mary's Tale we can see that her strength of faith was tested and she was equal to it; which of course God knew it would. Which is just as well as the whole course of history would have changed and you and I wouldn't be experiencing the joy of being saved by our Saviour Jesus Christ.
How fantastic is that?
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