“Behold the servant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to you word.” (Luke 1.38)

New Testament Challenge, Day 10 – Luke 1-3

With these words the Mother of God (Theotokos) and ever-virgin Mary declared her obedience to God’s will. As a little girl she risked being called an adulteress and constant ridicule from society in her willingness to obey God. She is a model of courage for us in today’s fallen world. It would have been much easier, speaking from a human perspective, to ignore God’s will for her. God doesn’t force anyone to do anything against their will, so we can rest comfortably knowing that the ever-virgin Mary willingly gave up her possibility for the easy life and chose to accept God into her life. She must have known that this would be a challenge for her, as I’m sure we know it will be a challenge for us to obey God’s will for us in our daily lives.

We live in a society built upon freedom, but that freedom is more often than not used for choosing actions that are against the will of God. We have the freedom of will, and in the United States the legal freedom, to pursue wealth until we have more money than we could possibly ever need while ignoring the needs of others around us. But this is not the will of God. “Well done good servant. You have been faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.” (Luke 19.17) God blesses us when we use our freedom to choose His will to “do good” to others.

In our preparations for Christmas, and while we are about the celebrate the great feast, albeit not on the Church calendar, of Thanksgiving, take a moment and reflect upon God’s will for you in this life. Then meet with your spiritual Father, or find one if you don’t already have one, and discuss God’s calling for you in life. Then take courage! Allow the courage of the ever-virgin Mary and Mother of God to be an inspiration to you to act upon that calling. Then pray that it will be said of you, like it was said of Zacharias and Elizabeth, “And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” (Luke 1.6)