May 13, 2014 Learning From Jesus' Mother
Tuesday May 13, 2014
God sent an angel to Mary to explain to her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and she would give birth to Jesus, the Messiah. It must have been challenging for her to believe that amazing fact to begin with, but then there was the society around her that had to be considered. Her fiancée would think she had been unfaithful to him if he found out she was pregnant. In that culture he actually had the right to have her killed. The people of the town would always know that she had been pregnant before being married and that was an extremely embarrassing and shameful condition at that time. In spite of all these things, Mary trusted God. God had spoken and if God said it, Mary believed it and acted on it. We would do well to do the same.
Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” (Luke 1:38 NLT)
Then there came the time when Jesus was an adult and almost ready to move into the public phase of his ministry. He and his mother were attending a wedding. There was a problem. There wasn't enough wine to give to all the guests and that would have been an extremely embarrassing and shameful situation for the bride and groom. Somehow Mary noticed the situation, and still believing what God had spoken to her about Jesus 30 years ago, she told the servant who looked after the guests, “Do whatever he tells you." (John 2:5 NLT) Mary knew that Jesus could solve the problem. He had the power. He had the knowledge. He could show a way through this situation and solve the problem. She didn't know how, but she knew that He could do it. As she herself had done so many years before, she now instructed the servants to simply do whatever Jesus told them.
There's no better lesson for us to learn and follow today -- to do whatever God tells us to do. We'll often not know how it relates to our situation until we obey and put into practice what God has said, but God can certainly be trusted to something that is wonderful that meets our need.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT)
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