The Freedom of Faith
With EJ Turner
I have recently been struck with how incredible Mary’s story is in the Bible. Obviously, the whole “chosen by God to give birth to the Saviour of the world through immaculate conception” thing is pretty cool, but it’s not just that. Mary was an unmarried teenager in a time when sex and children outside of marriage was often punishable by death. Yet, when she’s told by God’s angel that she will become pregnant with a child before she marries Joseph and that child will be the Son of God, she doesn’t freak out, she simply says:
“Yes! I will be a mother for the Lord! As His servant, I accept whatever He has for me. May everything you have told me come to pass.” Luke 1:38 TPT
To me that’s such an incredible response, and a far cry from what I suspect mine would have been in the same circumstances.
I think what strikes me most about this story, and many other similar ones in the Bible, is the freedom that faith gave Mary. It would have been easy for Mary to be afraid of what people might think of her or how people might treat her. She could have asked God to choose someone else, to stay in the simple and not take on what was being asked of her. She could have been controlled by her fears. But she wasn’t. Despite her circumstances, despite the possible consequences, despite what seemed possible (or more likely, impossible), Mary’s faith freed her from the human fear that could otherwise have consumed her.
For me, this is the reality of true faith. A faith that is founded not in circumstances, or even on what we think is possible, but on the very nature of God. Mary did not fear the world’s consequences of what God was asking her to do, because she knew God and trusted in His nature. She knew Him as faithful, as her provider, her protector, her comforter, her friend. Her faith was in Him, not in herself or her ability to deal with the circumstances she found herself in.
Over the past 6 years, I have been on my own journey of faith. The things I long for have so often felt out of reach. I sometimes feel like God is asking the impossible of me. But, like Mary, I have two choices. I can live as a captive to the fear that the things I long for will never become reality, striving to make them happen in my own strength and in my own way. Or I can remind myself daily of the unchanging nature of my God, of His love for me, of His promises and plans for me. I can trust in my Heavenly Father and not in my circumstances or my ability to change them.
“Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen.” Hebrews 11:1 TPT
This verse sums it up for me. Faith in our Almighty God brings our hopes into reality because that is the nature of our God – He is the fountain of hope (Romans 15:13 TPT). Faith in our Almighty God is the foundation we need to acquire the things we long for because that is the nature of our God – “Find your delight and true pleasure in Yahweh, and He will give you what you desire the most.” (Psalms 37:4 TPT)
This is the freedom of faith.
