Day 16: Joy as a Matter of Faith

Luke 1:46-48 :

Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord.
My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior,
for he has looked at the humble state of his handmaid.
For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed.

I want to make something very clear here. Mary was sinner and needed a Savior because she admitted it herself here. It is very inappropriate to treat any created thing as if it were just as important or more important than God. Mary didn’t magnify her own name, instead she magnified the Lord because of what He had done for her. Notice that she was only a handmaid, but the one she was carrying is the one who deserves all of the glory.

Mary’s attitude is an example for all of us as believers. She had enough faith to realize that even though she might be persecuted, it would be far more wonderful to serve the Lord by giving birth to the Son of God. Her focus was not on earthly things but on heavenly ones. It is true that all generations since that time have called Mary blessed, but, at the same time, there have been those in every generation who have dared to call her a sinner who was faking a virgin birth. This is the same situation we face as Christians today.

We can focus on the worldly perspective as people persecute us for our Biblical views, or we can believe in those views and realize that everyone will someday believe in the Biblical view. On that day, we will be blessed! That is what we need to focus on. In this world there will be many who mock and scoff the truth, but we who know the truth should be filled with joy because of the blessings we have.