Surrender and Trust-Mary's Legacy
Luann Budd
As we enter the Christmas season, I find myself thinking about Mary’s surrender and courageous trust. I believe we all genuinely want to trust God. But it can be so hard!
Sometimes we want to claim a promise and thereby trust God to spare us from pain and suffering. Yet we know Mary suffered deeply, even though she was trusting him. Sometimes we try to convince ourselves that God has assured us of a particular outcome, even when our hearts know there are no guarantees. Yet we see Mary, graciously facing one hardship after another, one surprise after another, not seeking guarantees, but trusting.
Mary's surrender was key to her ability to trust.
I don't think trust is about claiming a specific outcome based on a promise in Scripture. Mary was promised that her Son "will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end" (Luke 1:32-33). How could she have understood Gabriel's words to mean that Jesus would be despised and rejected, tortured, and executed? Trusting can't be confidence that we know what will happen. How many times has God surprised us? It seems trust is about surrendering our lives to God, being confident of his goodness and love for us, AND that he will provide us with what we need to face whatever challenges come.
We trust his character. We trust that he is good. We trust that he loves us. We trust he is near. We surrender our desire to control what will happen and simply, courageously, trust him. He will get us through it and will use it for our good (Romans 8:28, James 1:3).
In moments when we struggle to trust, when anxiety and fear threaten to overwhelm us, we can turn to Paul's simple wisdom in Philippians 4. Let your gentleness be evident (don't get crazy!). Remember the Lord is near (intentionally think about his nearness—he is with you). Then bring your request to God with thanksgiving (surrender it all to him). And the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. The pathway to peace is coming to God and bringing him our concerns. We don't put our trust in knowing the specifics of what the future holds; we trust in God.
As we look toward Christmas, may Gabriel's words to Mary lead us, not into perfect certainty, but into a deeper confidence in God. "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" (Luke 1:28). We, too, can have confidence that we have found favor with God thanks to the mercy of Mary's Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We don't need to be afraid because the Lord is with us. Like Mary, we can surrender our lives to him, and courageously trust our heavenly Father will provide us with everything we need to get through whatever he allows into our lives. The Lord is with us. Perhaps the invitation to us this Christmas is to open our hands in surrender and trust a little more courageously in the goodness of God.