The following is an overview of our DVD lesson in Loving God with All Your Mind.
Mary’s life was forever changed when an angel appeared to her and announced that should would be the mother of the Son of God. For each of us a phone call, an appointment or incident can be a turning point in our lives. What are we to think about the unexplainable things that touch our world?
We can see in Mary’s response the way we, too, should respond. She listened and then she asked, “How?” She consented to God’s plan for her life. By one act of God her life was changed. The first clue to how she accepted this was her calling herself the “handmaid of the Lord.” This was evidence that this was her mentality. She considered herself to have no right, will or possessions.
In Mary’s response to the angel’s announcement, we read Mary making 15 references to the Old Testament. She had a working knowledge of the Scriptures that taught her to know her God!
Many women are majoring on the minors. But instead we need to major the major: knowing God.
What are some of the majors we need to understand?
1. His wisdom – Where do we go to find wisdom? We find it through the Proverbs, discipleship or mentoring relationship, through commentaries, Bible studies. But God is wisdom and His ways are past finding out. We must obey in faith, though we might not understand.
2. His knowledge – God is knowledge and is the source of all there is to know. It’s impossible to understand because it lies in the realm of God. What does he know? He knows very situation of every woman. He knows all our thoughts, challenges, our husbands, or if there is no husband, he knows why. He knows the number of children, or if there are there are no children he knows why. He knows our sufferings. He knows how each situation will end and when.
3. His judgments – They are unsearchable. This is how God makes decisions. This is not the way we make decisions. Psalm 46:10 – Cease striving for it is I, God, who is doing this. We must just submit without understanding. This is what Mary did – “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.”
4. His ways – They are past finding out! This has to do with God’s methods. It is not the way we would do it because we are not God! Isaiah 55:8,9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
When you think about your situation:
• Realize that you don’t have to understand.
• Why ask “why?” Instead, ask “Who.” “Who is behind the scenes?” Let go of your rights. These are God’s decisions and we are not going to understand. We can trust His ways!
Elizabeth used this illustration – After an earthquake that made absolute chaos of their home, she went into the library and began putting the books back on the shelves between two bookends. She was trying to make order in the midst of the chaos. Put everything that is happening to you between the bookends of God’s wisdom and knowledge. It’s there that we will have order and peace – even if we don’t understand.
Whatever the “unacceptable thing” is in your life, you can learn to accept it by carefully viewing it from the realm of God’s wisdom, knowledge, judgments and ways rather than your own.
With love,
RefreshHer 