Anchor My Faith

Title: Blessed Is She Who Believed (Luke 1:43-45)

As Mary greets Elizabeth, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit “42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”” (Luke 1:42 – 43 ESV). We covered verse 42 in the previous lesson, but it provides a good starting point for this lesson. It is the question Elizabeth asks Mary that we want to look at.

Elizabeth demonstrates humility in recognizing the higher position of Mary over herself. God chose both women for a special purpose, but it was Mary who was singled to be the mother of Jesus, the Son of God. Elizabeth acknowledges this and even refers to Mary’s son as her Lord, denoting great dignity and honor. Elizabeth then tells Mary what she experienced when Mary greeted her: “For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy” (Luke 1:44 ESV).

Mary’s greeting prompted the Holy Spirit to fill Elizabeth, causing her baby of six months to leap with joy and providing Elizabeth with understanding that Jesus, her Lord, was already conceived in Mary’s womb. What an extraordinary time and event this is. It is clear that God is preparing two individuals for two very important assignments. It will be interesting to see this play out in lessons to come.

Elizabeth then concludes her comments by saying: “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Luke 1:45 ESV). Mary, who at the time was a very young woman, had already had an unusual encounter from God through an angle and told some very incredible things that were about to happen to her and her child to be, was willing to believe and without objecting accept what was required of her. On the other hand, Zachariah, a man of many years and a priest by office, did not demonstrate faith in what God would do and questioned if it would be so. Mary was blessed and Zachariah was punished. Where do you stand in your walk of faith? Are you willing to trust God and by faith do what he asks you to do?

In our next lesson Mary responds with a song of praise, which reveals a beautiful heart.

Prayer

Father, what joy and encouragement to see a young person demonstrate such faith and obedience to accept your call on her life, a call that could possibly result in her death by stoning. But she is willing to trust that you will protect her and that her son will be born and become the man to carry out a crucial assignment for humanity.