“Mary said, “I am the servant of the Lord. May it be unto me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. —LUKE 1:38
If you have ever been pregnant or been around a pregnant woman, you know that pregnancy comes with great weight, discomfort, and inconvenience. Carrying the promise of God is a similar experience. What will you do when carrying God’s promise begins to strain you? Will you say, “Please, God, take away the promise! I can’t do it anymore. It is too hard. I can’t walk this walk. It is too heavy! Give my destiny to someone else.” Or will you yield to God, even in the midst of all the radical changes the promise brings—even as it stretches and pulls everything about you into a new shape? People in the world sometimes abort their babies because they don’t want to make the sacrifices children require. These sacrifices may seem like too great an inconvenience. The price seems too great. The church has sometimes done the same thing with the promises, prophecies, and wooings of God. We have said yes in worship when we felt moved but then aborted what God asked us to carry when things started to feel difficult or inconvenient. God does not like abortion! It breaks His heart because when we carry that which He placed inside us to full term, His lost sons and daughters—those He planned to reach through our laid-down lives—can come home. He loves to bring in people from darkness. He loves to bring in the lost and the dying and the sick and the broken.
The Lord is looking for those who are so in love with Him that they will say yes when they are wooed and still say yes when great sacrifice is required. I believe Mary, as she was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, was engulfed in God’s love and might have said to herself, “Though this will cause me incredible pain, though this will cause my reputation to be utterly ruined, though my fiancé may not understand, though my family may disown me, I will carry Your promise to full term, God. I will bear the reproach because I love You. I will carry whatever You place inside of me for love’s sake.”
What was Mary’s response to a seemingly impossible promise? Yieldedness. The Lord can use anyone who will respond to Him as Mary did. He will use anyone who has a willing heart, anyone who will deny himself, anyone who will continue to say yes. Through intimacy with God we can find a place of yielded love in which all fear disappears, a place in which we become willing to do anything and go anywhere for love’s sake.
Thought for Reflection
The Lord is looking for those who will yield themselves to Him; He is looking for people who desire to know Him and love Him and are willing to do anything for Him. Do you fit this description? If not, what is holding you back? In what area are you struggling to yield to God?
Prayer
Possess me, Holy Spirit! Let me love like Jesus today. Let me be His fragrance. Let me bring His life. Help me to carry what You have placed within me this day. I love You, Holy Spirit. I love You, Jesus. I love You, Daddy God!”
–Written from Heidi Baker
