Mounting Up with Wings

“They that wait upon the Lord . . . . 
shall mount up with wings like eagles.” (Isaiah 40:31)

I was reading a book recently where the author likened faith and submission to two wings of a bird.

 

If we’re going to “mount up with wings” over our circumstances, we can’t do it with just one wing of surrender.  But no trust in the Lord.

Or with one wing of faith.  But no submission to what the Lord is doing.

It would be like a bird trying to fly with one wing, while the other lies limply at its side.

We have to both believe the Lord AND surrender to what He’s doing in our lives.

THAT’s what waiting on the Lord is.

And that’s exactly what Mary was doing when she told the angel, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word.” (Luke 1:38)

She was “waiting on the Lord” as His humble handmaid.

In fact, Mary was one of the greatest examples of a woman of faith and submission in all of Scripture.

Many want to say she was sinless, our mediator, a dispenser of grace, and the “Queen of Heaven.”

But Mary was just a humble, common individual who was hand-picked by God to be the mother of the Lord.

She was “blessed AMONG women.”  Not ABOVE them.

She would have never wanted to be on the pedestal she’s put on today.

She was God’s “handmaid” – the feminine form of the word “bondslave.”

A “bondslave” was someone who would do whatever was asked, at a moment’s notice. 

A life completely wrapped up in the will of another.

And that’s what characterized Mary’s entire life.

The angel told her, “. . . with God nothing shall be impossible.”

And she believed that.

She gave birth to Jesus when medically-speaking she shouldn’t have.

And she submitted to the will of the Lord, whatever that would mean for her.

The first thing it meant was that her betrothed husband was considering “putting her away privately.”
Her reputation was at stake.

It also meant she would enter into her son’s rejection. 

She had to give birth in a barn.

She and Joseph fled to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod the Great.

And she stood in silence as angry men crucified her Son.

If Mary had been a self-centered woman, wavering in her faith, and unwilling to submit to the Lord’s ways, she would never have been able to endure all that.

"The Lord was with her.” 

She was blessed indeed.

It would have been incredible to be the “mother of the Lord.”

Jesus said, “Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it.” 
(Luke 11:28)

In other words, we are EACH “blessed AMONG [others]” if we, like Mary, are trusting His Word and submitting to it.

Mary said to the servants at the wedding in Cana:  "Whatever He says to you. . . .do it.” (John 2:5)

That’s what it is to be His blessed bondslave.

Only then are we able to “mount up with wings.”


(Click here to listen to the lesson on "Mary, the Mother of Jesus.")