Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “You are blessed by God above all other women, and your child is blessed.” - Luke 1:42
If obedience is doing without the angel, how am I going to get through? The answer, of course, is faith for the times I don’t feel like doing the right thing. The first step to faith is saying yes. Mary said yes to the angel. After the angel left her, she followed through. She stuck to her word.
I have noticed that women are quite easily moved to say yes to God at a conference or praise gathering, responding readily and sincerely at such times. But what happens when they walk through their own front doors and are confronted by harassed husbands who’ve been left to babysit lively toddlers while they’ve been away getting their inspiration? Perhaps they don’t understand their wives’ delight and dedication.
Mary did a very wise thing. She sought out one person whom she knew would understand, and went to her for encouragement and support. Thank God for our Elizabeths—those women who recognize our dilemmas and join us in prayer and praise, who have also known what it means to utter the yes of relinquishment!
When I first became a Christian at the age of eighteen, and my own dear family did not quite understand me, God provided an Elizabeth—a sweet, older lady at my church who took me under her wing. Remembering her encouragement makes me want to be that sort of help to others.
Look around and ask God for your Elizabeth. Or perhaps you can be an Elizabeth to someone else.
For Further Study: Luke 1:39-56
Excerpted from The One Year Devotions for Women, Copyright ©2000 by Jill Briscoe. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
For more from Jill Briscoe, please visit TellingtheTruth.org.
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