Journey to Christmas with the Midwives of the Messiah - My Platform for Glorifying God, Part 2
By Sharon W. Betters
TODAY’S TREASURE
Let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your majesty to their children.
Every circumstance becomes an eternal opportunity to reflect Jesus. If you are struggling with loss, I know this is hard. Grief is hard work and long, so long. Leaning into the pain of losing Mark, struggling to find that “new normal” takes every ounce of energy. Surrendering to God's purposes can be excruciating. We often resist because to surrender and see our circumstances as our platform for glorifying Him seems to let God off the hook for our loss or grief or anguish. But there is freedom in surrendering to His purpose and seeing every detail of our lives as a gift to offer back to Jesus as a means for helping turn hearts toward Him. Failures, mistakes, bad decisions in our youth, once hidden in shame, can be freely shared at the appropriate time as a means to help protect someone coming behind us from making the same bad choices. Like the Psalmist, we ask the Lord: Let Your work appear to Your servants and Your majesty to their children. Psalm 90:16
Mary’s response to this seemingly outrageous call helped give me purpose on that dark, grey day. Mary wanted to glorify God. I felt God give me my marching orders for this journey in the Land of Grief. Instead of pain relief as my top priority, God called me to embrace His glory as my calling. God gives each of us purpose and redeems our pain when we choose to see our circumstances as our platform for glorifying Him. The mundane can be transformed into the majestic, the ordinary into the extraordinary as we intentionally embrace our circumstances as a platform, a platform for glorifying Him.
LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT
Review Mary’s encounter with the angel in Today’s Treasure. Imagine Mary’s voice speaking that profound statement: I am the handmaiden of the Lord. May it be to me as you have said. Luke 1:38
Capture her surrender to God’s purposes in her life. Did her youth encourage such a naïve response? Did she know that she would not only experience great joy but also great pain? After all, Isaiah called the coming Messiah a “man of sorrows.” I think in some small way, she knew that great sorrow and anguish would invade her life because of this baby. Yet Mary’s song tells us why she could surrender to God’s purposes. She trusted Him.
We have a choice. Will we embrace our circumstances as our platform for glorifying our beloved Savior? Do not fear surrendering to God’s call with these words. What we face this coming year will not be determined by us praying that prayer, but, praying these words will help shape our response to our circumstances.
More free resources for help, hope, and healing:
Treasures of Encouragement – Learn how God sends treasures of encouragement to help turn hearts toward Jesus and how the beauty, privilege and power of biblical encouragement is a means to invite others to trust the Lord’s goodness and faithfulness in the mundane moments and especially in the broken places of life.
Free supplemental resources.
About the Author: Sharon W. Betters is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, pastor’s wife, and cofounder of MARKINC Ministries, where she is the Director of Resource Development. Sharon is the author of several books, including Treasures of Encouragement, Treasures in Darkness, and co-author with Susan Hunt of Aging with Grace. She is the co-host of the Help & Hope podcast and writes Daily Treasure, an online devotional.
For more from Daily Treasure please visit MARKINC.ORG.
Originally published Thursday, 19 December 2024.
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