Luke 1:38
And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord;
be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
Luke 22:42
Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me:
nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
Submission to God involves surrendering our will to His. It is about Him being in charge of us not us being in charge of ourselves. Many humans remain lost in their sins over the issue of surrender. Many Christians remain needlessly bound in sin’s chains because of an unwillingness to surrender. Much of God’s work on earth is not enjoyed by many of God’s people because of their own stubbornness to have their will be done over God’s will being done in them. Many of God’s children miss out on much of the blessings of God in their life because of their rebelliousness to surrender to Him in different areas of their life. Much of the power of God being displayed in the lives of His children is missed today in the miracles of God not being displayed due to a lack of surrender to God and His will being done in us and through us. Mary surrendered herself to the will of God that was made known to her by the message of God delivered by God’s messenger. Messiah was coming and a miracle of God’s power was going to be displayed on earth, but Mary experienced it because she was surrendered to the will of God for her life. Mary did not know all that was meant in her yielding herself to what God wanted, but she was willing to trust God to help her with it all and she surrendered to God’s will. Mary did not fully understand every detail that would be taking place in God’s will for her life, but she submitted herself to what God had made known to her by trusting Him to take care of the details for her. Many Christians miss out on what God wants for them simply due to a lack of faith. While others miss out on seeing God do what only He can do in us and through us because of our rebellion and stubborn self-will that wants what we want even at the cost of what God wants for us. Either way, the end result is the same–God not being glorified in our life because we failed to surrender. Jesus prayed a prayer of surrender in the garden of Gethsemane and perhaps today some here need to follow His example. We as humans are thankful for the surrender of Mary in bringing Jesus to us to be our Saviour. We are also thankful for Jesus being surrendered to God’s will in His suffering the separation from the Father by our sins being placed upon Him on the cross as our sacrifice for sin. Others will be thankful in the future if we all here today will live our lives in surrender to whatever God is speaking to us about any time He wants us to do something that seems impossible.