When we think of the great heroes of the faith, Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, and the Apostle Paul come to mind, among others. Yet perhaps we are missing Mary’s heroic faith that ignored human comfort and changed our shallow view of weakness. She defied stereotypes with her simple obedience. However, make no mistake, her obedience was not perfect.
She was human just like the rest of us. It’s such a relief to think that I might be outside of God’s great plan, but her bold obedience inspires us to understand three important truths about trusting in God’s plan.
It’s unconventional
God works beyond human reason and understanding. After all, God, our Maker, has external knowledge that we cannot know. Therefore, God’s omniscience reigns supreme, and rightly so. I find peace in knowing that the most knowledgeable and intelligent being is God, who loves us and offers us unconditional grace, compassion, and mercy. Indeed, his character and wisdom are impeccable.
These undeniable facts reveal that God’s plans are often unconventional by human standards. He does not make decisions based on fear, greed, selfishness, or confusion. He is not hasty, irrational, or haphazard. God doesn’t make decisions that we just hold our breath and hope will work out. He is steady and sure even when things look wild for us.
“‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ answered Mary, to the angel announcing her calling to give birth to the Savior. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled’ (Luke 1:38, NIV). But wasn’t her next thought similar to mine?
“I am engaged, what will Joseph do to me? He might stone me to death!”
“Will anyone believe me? Our people have been miserable for too long to believe that the Savior would finally come here.”
“Who am I to give birth to the Savior? God knows everything, so how can I be the mother of God incarnate?”
“I’m going to mess it up. It’s going to be hard.”
“Maybe I was dreaming this? Wanting it to become reality? Let’s make all this up with my pride?”
“What should I do now?”
Yes, Mary found favor in God’s eyes. She was a fine woman, but a human being, a woman who still needed her baby to come to earth and sacrifice her life for sin. And one wonders if this incredibly scandalous and unconventional plan of God did not calm her heart and mind.
I share these thoughts to remind you that God’s plans rarely “make sense”, especially when we are begging for His miracles and intervention. At this point, we are begging God to work beyond our limited abilities, so we shouldn’t be surprised if the path God blazes for our hearts and souls is not typical.
And how boring would it be to have a God who isn’t creative enough to draft a cliffhanger, cliffhanger, and immeasurably beautiful story?
It’s unpleasant
I thought I knew pain until I gave birth to my first son. When I found out I was pregnant, I did a lot of research. Encouraged by several sisters in Christ that if I wanted a more natural birth, I could do so with God’s grace and patience, I decided to avoid an epidural. And friends, I will never regret this choice, but I will never say it was easy. I’m never going to pretend to be superwoman either.
My water broke naturally, which is great for a first pregnancy, but my body didn’t dilate. Three hours after my body rejected progress, my son remained in my womb with no amniotic fluid, threatening his health. The safest medical course of action was for a nurse to give me Pitocin, a drug that induces dilation and contraction. Phew! When they told me, “You’re going to feel a little cramp,” they were taking advantage of my ignorance and protecting me from the worst physical pain I’ve ever experienced.
As I’ll tell you in a moment, after four hours of breathing through medically induced labor, I gritted my teeth and whispered to the nurse, “Is it too late for an epidural?” She nodded, and I accepted my fate, which would have otherwise been a setback. (So much for Miss All Natural, Tough Girl Mom, right?)
Courage is a very fickle thing in human hands. It only lasts for spurts. And most of the time, you end up in a spiral. Or fear or exhaustion or both overtake us or we collapse.
Big, beautiful, and brave things are not the product of human ability, but God’s plan to use our discomfort to make His presence known. This is also why I share with people that outside of my experience of Christ’s salvation, I have never felt the presence of Christ so strongly as I did the night after I gave birth to my son. He took away my weakness and fear and traded it for a precious little life.
God’s ultimate plan is to defeat sin and bring glory to His name. So don’t be surprised if God forces discomfort into our physical bodies in order to bring supernatural healing to our world.
it can’t be stopped
I find great comfort in the Lord’s Prayer. Because of its popularity, it is often overlooked. Usually it’s done in a hurry in the name of repetition. But when I slow down and focus on the depth of the words, when I remind myself that this is the very model of prayer that Christ Himself set forth, I see how disrespectful I am to Christ’s guidance. Slowly and deliberately consider the following words (I prefer the 21st Century King James Version because of its great literary device):
“Therefore pray thus: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us our daily bread on this day.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Your kingdom, your power, and your glory are forever. Amen.
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matthew 6:9-14).
I wonder if Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy will be done,” because that’s just God’s “kingdom, power and glory forever and ever. Amen.” God uses our acts of submission in prayer to confirm the truth that He reigns forever.
Only God knows how the story will end. God knows that victory comes through the sacrifice and resurrection of His Son. It is also ours if we surrender our hearts and souls to God’s love and will. And because we are confident that God is good and works out all things for our good and his glory (Romans 8:28), we can find great peace and joy in the truth that God’s plan is truly unstoppable.
his plan for your life
Sometimes we feel like we are insignificant and that we are not doing anything significant enough for God to use us. You may also feel worthless, as if something big and bad that you have done has prevented you from participating in God’s plan. But then I remembered that God does not function within my understanding.
When I feel insignificant, God tells me that I am noticed, worthy, and cherished. When I feel like I’ve gone too far, Jesus reminds me that He left 99 people to chase me. My ordinariness, my failures, and all of this cannot and will not hinder the fulfillment of God’s unconventional, sometimes unpleasant, but eternally unstoppable plan.
Perhaps that is the most amazing of all Christmas miracles.
Photo credit: © Getty Images/Katarina Gondova
Peyton Garland is a writer, editor, and mom of a boy who lives in the beautiful foothills of East Tennessee. For more encouragement, subscribe to her blog Uncured+OK.
