Seeds for 07/25/2024 - Yield - Luke 1:38
In this series on prayer and scripture, we are following the acronym P.R.A.Y. as a guide for prayer. We are considering scriptures throughout the Bible on each theme. My prayer is that studying scriptures on these themes will give us biblical words to use as our own and simple insights for our praying.
Scripture:
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
Observation:
“Let it be” is, of course, more than a great Beatles song. It’s one of the classic prayers of yielding in the Bible.
The context for this line is the announcement of Jesus’ birth to Mary by the angel Gabriel. He appears to her and informs her that she is highly favored by God and will conceive and give birth to the Messiah. She questions how this can happen, since she understands how biology works and the angel explains that the Holy Spirit will impregnate her. As this, she responds in faith with a simple assertion, welcoming the work of God through her life. Here are my observations about this prayer.
First, Mary engages with the angel to seek understanding, which he honors, before she gets to the point of yielding and welcoming the Lord’s work. Engaging the Lord in wonder and curiosity is apparently fair game when His plans are puzzling. Yielding is the ultimate endpoint, but authentic conversation may well be part of the process.
Second, Mary’s yielding prayer is grounded in her identity before the Lord as His servant. The angel calls her, “highly favored,” which Mary interrogates. I love how scripture tells us that she “wondered what kind of greeting this might be.” But her acceptance of the Lord’s plan is grounded in her self-understanding as “the Lord’s servant.” Before she embraces what she will do, she acknowledges who she is in relationship to God.
Third, Mary’s prayer shows receptivity to and faith in the Word of the Lord. The angel bolsters his claim about this miraculous birth by reminding Mary that “Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.” Mary’s faith is displayed in believing that God can do wonders and that He plans to do a wonder through her.
Fourth, Mary’s prayer is a simple statement of welcome to the work of the Lord. She offers hospitality to the Son of God who will come into the world first by coming into her womb. She is yielding not to a moment’s task, but rather committing to a longer project of bearing and raising the Savior.
Application:
When have you been asked to make a long-term commitment to a person or a project? What made it easy or hard to say yes?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, help me make the journey from hearing your call to receiving it with grace and confidence. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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