The joy of living the life you were meant to live

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her!’ Luke 1:39-45

Let it be to me according to your word.

Those were the wonderful words of Mary when she heard that she was to have a very, very special baby, as we saw yesterday.

She allowed God’s plan for her life to work itself out. She trusted God to lead her and guide her on this unknown, scary path and protect her and provide for her. She placed herself at the centre of God’s will for her life. Which is always the very best place to live out life from.

The angel had told her about Elizabeth, who was very old and yet also pregnant. Maybe Mary went to visit her to see for herself. Maybe she went for moral support, for guidance, for the companionship of another pregnant woman.

When Elizabeth saw Mary, she knew. She just knew. The baby inside her did a somersault of joy. The God who had worked this miracle in her life was at work in Mary’s life too. She describes Mary as ‘blessed’. Some versions translate this as happy, but it’s so much more than that. Happy is a bit superficial. Happy is dependent on external circumstance. There was much about Mary’s external circumstances which was potentially scary, shameful, even dangerous – whilst she knew that she was at the centre of God’s will for her life, she had the reactions of everyone else around her to deal with. And yet she is blessed.

Here’s one of the dictionary definitions of blessed that makes more sense here.

Blessed

endowed with divine favour and protection.
synonyms: favoured, fortunate, lucky, privileged, select, happy, joyful, joyous, blissful, glad, enviable

At the top of the list, there’s that word ‘favoured’ that Elizabeth uses to describe herself. Being blessed is being chosen by God to live the life He created you for. Living at the centre of His will for your life is the very best place to position yourself. You’re living the life you were born to live. There’s a deep joy that comes with that, a contentment that cannot be shaken by external circumstances, a trust that God has your back and He will provide and protect.

Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her!

That is true for all of us. True for you and true for me.

My path is not Mary’s path. My path is not your path. We were all created as unique beings with a unique path. We don’t ever need to compare or try to be more like someone else. All we need to do is to put our energies into being exactly who God created us to be. It may not be what we would have chosen. We possibly would have rather walked someone else’s path. But when we are living the life God intended for us, we know it. We feel it deep down. There’s that joy that bubbles up from deep within when we’re doing what we were born to do. A peace that comes from knowing that God will keep His promises to us – to be with us and that nothing can ever separate us from His love for us.

Longing to be someone else never ends well. It leads to deep dissatisfaction and misery. Learning to accept who we are as the unique person God intended us to be and to live that life to the full, whatever that looks like – that’s where the true joy lies.

Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her!