On this Mother’s Day, I am thinking of the role of a mother. I can only begin to imagine how many hugs my dear wife and my own mother have given to the children throughout the years. When I or the kids have been happy, sad, upset, or even angry – we have found rest in the comforting embrace of Mom. It didn’t help if we fought her and struggled to get out of that embrace. We had to yield to her firm and loving hug. The truth be told, once we felt her arms wrapped around us, we would usually give in to the comfort she was providing. Oh, how important it is that we embrace the role God has given each of us!
God has a role for you.
Mary was set aside for a specific role, but Mary had a choice to yield and embrace God’s role or reject it. The scriptures clearly show us that she was committed to following God even when she did not fully understand God’s pathway. (Luke 1:34 - “seeing I know not a man?”)
A chaplain was ministering to a soldier in the hospital and said, “You have lost an arm in the great cause.”
The soldier replied, “I didn't lose it—I gave it.”
Jesus did not lose His life either. He willingly gave it for us, so we could be reconciled to God. (Source: The Minister’s Manual, Gerard Benjamin Fleet Hallock)
When you follow God’s way, you don’t lose anything! The Lord did not take something better away from you when He gave you your role. He gave you something far more important…far more valuable…far more desirable! God gave you your role – He created YOU for this moment in time – and you can reject it or accept!!
When you ask for God’s saving grace, you receive salvation. Rom. 10:9-10, 13.
When you trust God, you receive fulfillment & guidance. Psalm 37:1-4; Prov. 3:5-7.
When you mortify the flesh (anger, resentment, immorality), you receive the filling of the Spirit of God (love, joy, peace…). Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:19-23.
The exchange for embracing God’s role for your life or rejecting what God has for you is the difference between love and hatred…misery and joy…and war and peace. God’s role is not promised to be easy. Afterall, Mary was told she would conceive a child as a teenage virgin in a culture that would stone women caught in immorality. However, there is no greater place of contentment, there is no greater place of fulfillment, and there is no greater place of making an impact in the world – than God’s role for your life! So, start with what God’s Word already says your role is described as.
God’s role for you always begins with what God’s Word has already revealed.
The next steps would be determined with much prayer and godly counsel.
God has strength for you.
Mary was empowered by God to fulfill God’s role for her life. Luke 1:35
On October 15, 1997, David Huxley strapped a harness around his upper torso and attached it to a steel cable some fifteen yards long. The other end of the steel cable was attached to the front-wheel strut of a 747 jetliner that weighed 187 tons. With his tennis shoes firmly planted on the runway, Huxley leaned forward, pulled with all his might, and began moving the jetliner down the runway. In fact, he pulled the 747 one hundred yards in one minute and twenty-one seconds.
God’s work resembles that 747 jetliner. Just as it is impossible to pull a plane any real distance without using its engines, we can do nothing in our own strength. We must pray for God’s power that enables His church to fly thousands of miles on the wings of His Divine empowering. The church needs God's strength and help to grow. (Source: Choice Contemporary Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers, and Writers, Craig Brian Larson)
We need strength TODAY! The average person is not thinking about the strength that will be needed for Christmas schedules. The average person is thinking about the strength to walk through today and the challenges of THIS week!
o Strength to raise your children, to be a wife or husband
o Strength to read your Bible and pray with understanding
o Strength for challenges at work or in marriage
o Strength to stand for righteousness when your child’s big brown eyes are pleading their case
Mary was empowered to do God’s will – and she would desperately need Divine strength! She was a young teenager. Her parents did not receive a vision or dream from God, only she did. The evidence of what God called her to do (birth the Christ-child) could not be hidden. It would be clear to all who saw her that she was pregnant, yet her community would know she was not yet married. Mary would even have to travel to Bethlehem during her third trimester. God sent Elizabeth to encourage her. God spoke to Joseph to support and encourage her. On the night of the birth, God sent Shepherds to worship the Messiah. God also sent 3 magi years later with amazing gifts for the Messiah. God would protect from murder and have Joseph move the family out of danger. God empowers you and me to His will as well!
God has PEACE for you.
Mary was submissive to God’s way. This required trusting God. After she submitted (“handmaid of the LORD”) (Lk. 1:38), she received encouragement from Elizabeth (Lk. 1:41-45).
Mary believed that the One “who knew all” was the best to follow.
o Trust the Lord with the way He leads your husband (Eph. 5:23)
o Trust the Lord with the way He gives your wife insight into things you do not see (Eph. 5:21)
o Trust the Lord to provide for your needs (Matt. 6:31-33)
o Trust the Lord to withhold no good thing (Ps. 84:11)
In his book, Moments for Mothers, Robert Strand wrote about the conflicts of a family in Glasgow, Scotland. After years of rebellion, a daughter finally rejected her parents, their values, and their faith. She set out on her own to enjoy a life without restraints, but soon became enslaved to her liberated choices.
Years of misery followed as she lived on the streets, sold herself for pennies, and depended on rescue missions for survival. Because of her self-imposed detachment from family, she didn’t know her father died, or that her mother never quit looking for her. One day she saw a picture that her mom had posted in each of the city’s homeless shelters. Scrawled across the photo of her mother were the words, “I love you still… come home!”
In wonder and disbelief, she set out for her home in hopes that she was indeed still loved. By the time she arrived it was the middle of the night. Her heart raced as she stood on the porch and prepared to knock, but her countenance suddenly changed when she tapped on the door and it crept open. She ran to her mother’s bedroom in fear that someone had broken in and harmed her. She desperately reached for her mom and the woman awoke quickly to embrace her wayward daughter. When the young woman explained her fears about the open door, her mother replied, “No dear. From the day you left, that door has never been locked.” Source: Chicken Soup For The Mother’s Soul, Canfield and Hansen
Look at the hurt and heavy baggage we carry when we insist to pursue a way God never intended for us to carry! Now look at the loving embrace and grace of our heavenly Father ready to receive us in a loving relationship with Him when we return (Ps. 86:5, 15; Lam. 3:22-23; I Jn. 1:9). Oh believer, embrace the amazing role GOD gave you!