Skip to main content

The True Christmas Spirit - Luke 1:46-55 (Part 4)

Mary's Worship continued...
Humble Worship (4/4)
True worship can come only from a humble heart, one that has no thought for itself.  Humility is being so focused on God that what happens to you is of little significance.  God gives grace to the humble so anyone who comes to worship him must come in humility. 

In verse 48, Mary says that the Lord has "looked on the humble estate of his servant."  Mary finds it unfathomable that God would choose such a common girl as herself to be the mother of Jesus.  Mary didn't have thoughts of, "Well you know God made a pretty good choice in me," or "Certainly there are a lot of other women in the world but none as godly as me."  No, her initial thoughts were toward heaven.  Mary didn't even respond to Elizabeth's praises in the verses just prior to these.  She was overwhelmed by how God could possibly use someone as common as herself.  When Mary uses the term 'humble estate' she's referring to herself as a nobody both socially and culturally, just a lowly wife of the village carpenter, and an unlikely mother for Jesus.


While Mary was obviously a pure and godly woman, she didn't see herself that way.  It's worth noting that people who are, don't typically see themselves that way.  John MacArthur writes, "Those who are truly pure and truly godly and truly righteous don't think they are, in fact they know they are not.  Because one of the functions of Godliness and purity and righteousness is to be able to search out every nook and cranny of our iniquity and they can do it.  And the more godly you are, the less godly you believe yourself to be and so there is a certain brokenness and humility.  The essence of true spirituality is to not think you have it."

So what is the Christmas spirit?  It's an attitude of worship, a deep heartfelt understanding (internal) that rises up (intense) from within you out of praise and humility (humble) on a consistent basis (habitual).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2020 is Hindsight...Finally!

Wow, what a year! 2020 could literally be an entire decade, maybe more, of history, change, and lessons rolled up into these twelve months. While many aspects of 2020 were kind of sucky and we would like to forget them, it will certainly be a year to remember. And it will be enlightening when this year is looked back on in 10, 25, or 50 years to be discussed. I wonder if we'll seem like geniuses or idiots? Probably both to some extent! While there is so much that I could consider and analyze about this year, I'll try to break some of it down into four dimensions - Physical, Spiritual, Mental, and Social/Emotional. These are events and happenings from my world and perspective and I'm trying to be open in sharing and would love to hear from others on events you found most transforming. Physical When COVID cause gyms to close, that messed me up. Our town and state were late to be hit with severe cases and therefore later than many across the country to close up shop. I'm n...
Post a Comment
Read more

Worship > Fellowship

I believe that worship, true worship of God, is more important than fellowship with other believers.  Now I'm not saying that fellowship and relationships aren't important.  But I am saying that if I'm not worshiping God, if I'm not right with him, then my other relationships can't be right.  My fellowship and worship with him is more important than my relationship with my wife, my son, family, friends, my church, and my community.  Think about it.  How can I love my wife like Christ loved the church if I don't love Christ?  I wouldn't know how to love without knowing him.  Why should she submit to me if I'm not worth submitting to?  And yes I do believes wives should submit, but I also believe that won't be an issue as long as she's submitting to a godly husband.  (Ephesians 5:22-25) Our love for others must flow from our love and worship of God.  1 John 4:19-21 reads, "We love because he first loved us.  If anyone says,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Magnify

"Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!" - Psalm 34:3 We often talk or sing about magnifying the Lord or magnifying his name, but what does it really mean to magnify something?  According to Webster, the simple  definition of magnify is: - to make something greater - to make something seem greater or more important than it is - to make something appear larger I've spent practically all of my life in church, but not necessarily walking with God.  I didn't pray about where I would attend college, get a job, or buy a house.  I took the lower cost college and searched for best available in the other two categories.  I have since learned that if I will focus on God, he will direct me to where I should be and what I should be doing.  It's like looking through a magnifying glass.  You can be glancing around and going in many different directions, but then the Lord steadies your hand and you begin to see the image under t...
Post a Comment
Read more