Dear, Dear Mary
by Marilyn Ehle
**Do you sometimes feel you are unqualified to be God’s servant? http://thelife.com/interactive/ask.html
“Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit…” ( Matthew 1:18 ).
Religion has sadly done great harm to the simple Jewish girl from Bethlehem. She is too often either venerated with a kind of mysticism or dismissed as a mere “instrument” of God.
But if we carefully read what we know of Mary as recorded in scripture, we discover a young peasant girl, probably from a family of devout Jews. It is unlikely that she was formally trained in scripture, but she was evidently familiar with much of the Old Testament. A careful reading of her “Magnificat” (Luke 1:47-55) underscores her knowledge of and belief in Jehovah God.
According to customs of the day, she was very likely engaged to Joseph in her early teens and anticipated life as a normal Jewish wife. And then God interrupted. Poet Madeleine L’Engle writes:
Had Mary been filled with reason
There’d have been no room for the child.
Mary questioned Gabriel’s announcement, but it was a question only of “how will this be?”, not a “this cannot be” statement of deep doubt.
Can you imagine discussion in the council of Heaven as Mary was chosen to be the mother of Jesus? What qualities did God look for? Willingness? Wisdom? Humility? Good sense? Deep faith?
All these and more. And he continues to look for them today. Does he find them in me?
~Father, thank you for the example of love and obedience we have in Mary. She too struggled with doubt – from the early days of her pregnancy right up to the cross. May her words be mine: “I am the Lord’s servant… May it be to me as you have said.”
About the Author: http://talk.thelife.com/authors/marilyn-ehle/
what a wonderful devotion
sharon
I feel as if I’ve gone backwards. Please pray for me as I strive to walk closer.
Brenda..Praying for you and you will have it!! The very desire that you expressed to have a closer walk with Him, shows your heart..He will honor that request!!! (((Brenda)))
Dear Ladies,
I just received a call from Linda and she is in incredible pain….she could hardly talk. Please let’s all pray for her right now, that God would touch her body and lift that pain.
Father God, our dear friend Linda is experiencing pain that most of us cannot conceive. God we come to you….lifting Linda up to your Throne Room, asking for your loving mercy. Reach down, Lord and touch her body form her head to the very souls of her feet….give her relief…..have mercy on her this very moment.
Lord we don’t understand why some of your saints suffer so…and Lord no man can help her right now…we need your divine intervention. Oh God……please touch your precious daughter. We know you love her and grieve when you see her in pain like this.
OH God….we are crying out for your touch…your loving and merciful touch, to relieve…to take away this horrible pain ..this agony, Lord. Take it now Lord….
You are a God of mercy…of love and of miracles. We are asking for a miracle for her right now….in faith and give you all the Praise and Glory.
We ask this in your precious name…..Jesus….believing that you will answer our prayers.
I’m looking into the email issues again.
…didn’t post. The site didn’t like the raised eyebrows I gave the laugh. Oh, well…
:-DDD !
ooops, my “
Loved your comments ladies..and so glad we “do” have “brown spots” and “Dandelions”..As Judy wrote above …am paraphrasing here!..We will never be perfection on this earth..He planned it that way for our “preparation for Paradise”! It helps us realize our human conditions and daily need for improvement.and keeps us obedient..Staying “teachable” is the most important thing of all! We are all “arriving” and will be “arrived” when we are in His Glorious Presence..Hallelujah!!
Dear Lord keep us humble, teachable, and always willing to be obedient! We love YOU, Father!
Have GREAT Weekend, Ladies!
JUDY D AND DIANE
I TOO HAD TO GO THROUGH THE WEBSITE FOR TODAYS DEVOTIONAL.
WHAT I HAVE DONE IS GONE TO THE HOME PAGE AND BOOKMARKED IT. THAT WAY I CAN GET EACH DAY DEVOTIONAL BUT IN MY BOOKMARKS TAB.TM IS HAVING PROBLEMS GETTING THESE DEVOTIONALS OUT THE LAST FEW DAYS. WE CAN ONLY HOPE AND PRAY THEY CAN WORK THROUGH THEM SO WE CAN GET OUR BELOVED DEVOTIONALS ON A REGULAR BASES.\
LOVE TO ALL
G0D BLESS
CHRIS T.
I like your saing about “staying green”, Diane. SO true. Brown spots, huh? I might even have some dandelions and crab grass along with the brown spots. :-)
Mine was not delivered today to my email either, so I just went to the website. Sometimes it comes later on the weekend, but today I did not receive it at all.
If anyone doesn’t receive it, they just need to go to the website and click on “home”.
I’m back, and I haven’t gotten today’s devo. I read yesterday’s and saw the confusion and resolutions. I got here using the tabs on yesterday’s page.
I think we all want to have more of the qualities mentioned above in the devotional. However, it struck me, Patti and Chris. . . perhaps that is a good thing. We are willing and we want to be obedient. We see our faults and we want to change. To show the fruits of the spirit . . . the love of Christ. IF we didn’t want to be that way or IF we thought we had already arrived, then we would have a problem. We are children of God; learning, developing, and maturing. It is a process. Think of babies. . . they do not just come out of the womb walking. They have to strengthen their muscles through crawling, standing, and, yes, falling, before they can take a step. It takes us time to learn and grow, too. I heard someone say one time that you don’t want to get where you are “ripe” because the next step after that is “rotten”. We want to keep our attitudes so we will never be “ripe” . . . there will always be something for us to do better so we can be more like Jesus. And as this devotional pointed out, more like Mary. I think both of your attitudes (Patti, Chris and hopefully mine) show an attitude of obedience and desire to live a life pleasing to our Lord. We have our ups and downs, but through it all we have our Lord Jesus Christ. I can’t imagine not having Him. Thank you, Father, for your Precious Gift, your Son our Saviour. I praise you and thank you and give You the glory. Amen.
I HAVE TO AGREE WITH PATTY, I DON’T KNOW IF I WOULD MEASURE UP TO MARY. I GUESS I HAVE TO WORK ON THESE THING.
GOD SHOW ME WHERE I CAN IMPROVE MYSELF TO BE MORE LIKE THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. YOUR WILL NOT MINE BE DONE
CHRIS T.