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A Faith Like Mary’s

By Helen Worth

“Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.’ Matt 6:8-11

Have you ever prayed for a better job, a happier life for you or your children, or for success in general? We probably all have outcomes we hope for in various areas of our lives. How many of us have thought at some point that faith is striving to believe for something that’s missing from our lives? We perceive a gap between us and our desired outcomes and attempt to have faith for that gap to be filled. We call on God to join us, to answer and fill that gap.

However, if faith only operates when we perceive gaps in our lives what is the ‘faith of our Lord Jesus Christ’ – the One who had no gaps? In Matthew 6, Jesus taught His disciples how to pray. Here, there are no petitions to make life easier, happier or more successful; there aren’t even any requests for the Father and Holy Spirit to join His desires! Instead, when Jesus prayed He aligned Himself to the Father’s desire and will: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done….”

What Jesus taught us to ask for was our “daily bread”- whatever shape, form or taste that came in – that part was up to the Father! This is what it is to align ourselves to His purpose: we accept our unique portion, promised and given by the Father. The apostle Paul said, “The life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God…” (Gal 2:20). Can we join this kind of faith – Christ’s faith for us?

Many “heroes” of the Bible lived by this faith, but one that particularly stands out is Mary, the mother of Jesus. When the angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her that she was blessed because she would bear the  Son of God in her own flesh, her response was very simple: “Let it be to me according to Your Word.” (Luke 1:38) What an amazing response of faith! Her response joined her to the Father’s desire and in joining she actually participated in the birth of a new creation, ushering in a new beginning for all of us.

It is no different for any of us today. When the Word of God comes to us, it comes to define who we are and to align us to the will of the Father. Can we have faith in this Word, trusting the Lord will protect and complete what he has started? Or do we really wish to reduce the heart of God to the outcomes that we desire? What far greater blessing waits for those who will hear the call of God to participate in faith with what is on His heart! All that is needed from us is a willing heart: Let it be to me according to Your Word.