Thoughts on Mary: Handmaiden of the Lord

OK so back in early December I was asked to speak at a Ladies' Dessert at our church- Oaklands Chapel. It was such a blessing to me. At first,I had no idea what the Lord would have me present and so had to spend a lot of time in prayer and then in study. The following is a basic transcript of what I presented, except that I didn't read it verbatim and I can't even tell you what parts got left out or added to. Anyway, I intended to post this back in December, but the day after I printed out my copy to use at the upcoming event, our computer crashed and wasn't up and running again until a couple of weeks ago. Needless to say, I was so glad I had my printed copy before the crash. It may seem a little lengthy of a read,(I know my attention span for reading blog entries is limited) but I believe it has a lot of Truth (a lot of JESUS) in it so it may be worth breaking up into a couple of sessions.


Title was --Mary: Handmaiden of the Lord
First I read this scripture from Luke 1:26-38 from the Amplified
26Now in the sixth month [after that], the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee named Nazareth,

27To a girl never having been married and a [a]virgin engaged to be married to a man whose name was Joseph, a descendant of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

28And he came to her and said, Hail, O favored one [[b]endued with grace]! The Lord is with you! [c]Blessed (favored of God) are you before all other women!

29But when she saw him, she was greatly troubled and disturbed and confused at what he said and kept revolving in her mind what such a greeting might mean.

30And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace ([d]free, spontaneous, absolute favor and loving-kindness) with God.

31And listen! You will become pregnant and will give birth to a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus.

32He will be great (eminent) and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His forefather David,

33And He will reign over the house of Jacob throughout the ages; and of His reign there will be no end.(A)

34And Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I have no [intimacy with any man as a] husband?

35Then the angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you [like a shining cloud]; and so the holy (pure, sinless) Thing (Offspring) which shall be born of you will be called the Son of God.(B)

36And listen! Your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is now the sixth month with her who was called barren.

37For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment.

38Then Mary said, Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be done to me according to what you have said. And the angel left her.


Have you ever imagined yourself in Mary’s place? I’ve never seen an angel, that I know of anyway. But meeting face to face with a direct messenger of God would most definitely be a breath-taking experience. Don’t you agree? I wonder how fast was Mary’s heart beating? The adrenaline flowing within. The fear of what was happening mixed with the awe and excitement of an encounter with an angel of God. Obviously, she was incredibly frightened and confused. And the angel addresses her astonishment and assures her that she does not need to be afraid because God is blessing her. And then Gabriel tells her what is about to happen to her. Mary is still confused because after all, she knew how babies were made. And she was a virgin. How could this be? And so Gabriel reveals to her “ The Holy Spirit will cause this child to be conceived within you”. “God’s power will come upon you” Next, Gabriel affirms the miracle in her older cousin Elizabeth’s life. The story of John the Baptist’s arrival is spectacular in its own right. See how God intertwines the lives of his saints into His story. Mary’s story becomes intricately woven with Zechariah and Elizabeth’s story, both rooted in the coming of the Savior. This is good stuff.

Gabriel completes his visit and his revelation to Mary by testifying to the power of God in accomplishing His purposes. 37For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment.
Mary has just received a word from God. And Gabriel assures her that God is fully able to carry out what He has said. I wonder do we believe what God has spoken to our hearts. I wonder do we really believe the Promises we have recorded in the Bible about his plans for us.
But do you know what really blesses me in this passage? Mary’s deliberate obedience by faith in God. What Gabriel has foretold defies all that Mary knows of the natural world and its processes. Nevertheless, her response: “Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be done to me according to what you have said.” Mary believes. She doesn’t question. She doesn’t ask for more signs. She simply trusts. She takes him for His word. God has spoken. And she puts it all on the line by her decision to believe what He has said. Now it’s out of her hands. It’s up to God to bring what He has spoken to pass.

And do we take it for granted that this was an easy decision for Mary to make? Think about the consequences for trusting God with this matter. I wonder what doubts assailed her? What would Joseph think? Would he believe her? Would he abandon her? What about her family? Her best friends? Surely this would ruin her good name , her reputation as a righteous woman. The shame that would be cast upon her family. What about the plans she had dreamed of since she was a little girl. What would happen to those? She would most assuredly become outcast.

I don’t know if any of those doubts entered her mind when she was talking to Gabriel. But I am almost certain as the days and months past, she must have been haunted with such thoughts. That’s how Satan works and he’s pretty good at stirring up doubts. I wonder, then, if she remembered her declaration of faith “I am the handmaiden of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to what you have said.”

And God did not abandon Mary. Though Joseph was planning to discreetly call off their engagement (after all, what choice did a righteous man have?) God intervened and sent an angel to Joseph in a dream to reveal His plan to him, and so Mary was not rejected by her husband. And Joseph, also making a choice to yield his own dreams to the plans of His God took Mary as His wife. You see, Joseph also had to decide if he was going to believe what had been spoken to him. He, too, made the choice to be obedient by faith in God.
Of course, sometimes God’s best for us is to allow us to bear a hardship. Mary would still have to endure the false rumors about her illegitimate son. I can’t imagine how those hurt her when she overheard an insinuation while shopping at the market. And those hateful rumors never really ended. Even as a grown man, people would take an opportunity to scorn Jesus if they could. John 8:41 As Jesus is being challenged by a group of Pharisees, They said to Him, “We are not illegitimate children and born out of fornication; we have one Father, even God.”

It’s been 30 years. You mean those hateful rumors are still making the rounds?
When Mary overheard one of those horrible lies about her child, the Son of God, I wonder did she recall her promise. “I am the handmaiden of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to what you have said.” I wonder did she whisper it as she raised her face at Calvary and looked upon her dying Son? Who’s to say? We can only speculate how her vow of faith influenced her walk with God as she watched a little boy grow up into the Savior of the World. I am just blessed by Mary’s choice to let God have His way with her life.

So what does this mean for us today? How can we apply Mary’s absolute availability to God to our lives? We don’t have our own personal angel visiting us to tell us what God’s will for our day is. But we have something just as marvelous—I think maybe more spectacular than a whole host of angels. We have The Holy Spirit of God indwelling us. And we are promised this spirit will teach us all things. John 16:13-15 Jesus says, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.”

This is no little thing that Jesus is promising us. He will guide us into all truth, not just little bits and fragments. He will speak to us directly what the Father says. How awesome is that? Do we believe that? And everything that the Spirit reveals to us will be by nature glorifying to the Son. We get to participate in glorifying Jesus.

Well, there must be something that is withheld from us. No. Jesus says All that belongs to the Father is mine. And he promises to make it known to us. How can we gloss over these words without getting pumped? This is good news!
And when we read 2nd Peter 1:3-4, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” God has equipped us with everything we need for life and godliness, and we can participate in the divine nature. Have you ever considered yourself royalty? Through Jesus, that is what you are.

Of course one thing remains to be done. We have to be willing to abandon our dreams for His, to make our ourselves available to God. We have to be willing just as Mary did, to take a deliberate step of obedience by faith.

So as we are going, getting up in the morning, making breakfast, going to work, driving our cars, dealing with our families, dealing with our friends, dealing with the lady at the checkout counter. (I think you get the point.) As we are going, we come to moments when we realize that God by His Spirit, has revealed His will to us. And we have a choice to make right then: to be the Lord’s handmaiden or to not be the Lord’s Handmaiden. Daily life is packed with these opportunities if we will but open our hearts to see them.

And when you know—When You really know that God has given you a step to take, it is a truly wonderful thing to embrace it and lean into it. But many times, sisters, we may not be able to do the thing at hand unless we face that it is only God that can do it in us.

Some of you may be familiar with Corrie ten Boom, a sister who was imprisoned many years in a concentration camp during WWII for hiding Jews. Once, after a speaking engagement several years after the war , Corrie ten Boom met face to face with one of the prison guards from the concentration camp where she had spent a good deal of time and where her sister died. And this man who had been her guard approached her and asked for her forgiveness. She hit a wall. She knew she couldn’t forgive him. It was a sheer impossibility. And so right there as she was standing before this man who had his hand extended to receive a handshake. Within the depths of her Being, she called out to God for love and forgiveness for this man. And she was not disappointed. Love and forgiveness flowed like a stream from within her, and she took his hand and it was not counterfeit. God loved that ex-natzi through Corrie ten Boom.

And whether it is a spectacular feat like this one with Corrie ten Boom or whether it is, “Lord, I can’t wash dishes just now, I have no strength to do it. But they need to get done and I know it’s your will for me “ You see, in whatever task you are given how trivial or grand, God will use His Holy Spirit to enable you to do it. You can be honest with God. “Father , I don’t really comprehend how the death of your Son and the blood He shed can cleanse my heart from sin and clear the record—but this is what you have said! I am your handmaiden. Let it be done to me according to what you have said. “ Or, God, I do not fully understand how you can come by your Holy Spirit to live in me, making me a partaker in your divine nature, in the very life of Jesus Christ Himself so that - He through me, - can reveal the invisible God to a visible world, but this is what you have said. I am your handmaiden, Lord. Let it be done to me according to what you have said.

Do that, and the burden is on God to keep the promise He has made and to do what He has said. You can’t –but He can! And I believe He will.