Considered Blessed

Recently I was reading a devotion passage from Luke 1, which contains Mary’s song of praise when she goes to see Elizabeth. Verses 48 and 49 spoke volumes to me that day and have inspired some study. In fact, there is more than I can cover in one post, so this will probably become a multi-part post.

Most of the time we consider ourselves blessed when good things happen to us. We feel blessed when we feel good. Not that those times aren’t blessed, but it is easy to feel blessed in those times. We don’t need help with the easy. We need help with the hard. We rarely consider trials, burdens, or suffering to be blessings.

Here are the verses in the NIV translation, because I think it conveys well something I discovered.

48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.

When I looked at the word “humble”, I was amazed as I discovered a couple of things. In the Greek it is a noun, not an adjective or a verb. That means it is referring to something, not something Mary was doing as a verb, or describing Mary as an adjective. It is referencing the “humble state” Mary was in. Here she is talking about her situation, not her actions or attributes. God had taken note of her humble situation, not her humility.

When I looked up the meaning of the original Greek word (Strong’s Number G5104 if any of you like that kind of thing), here’s what I found. The word tapeinosis is defined as “humbleness, lowliness, humiliation, low estate, made low, and vile”. For Mary to use this word, seems to indicate that she does not consider her situation to be comfortable or necessarily good. Possibly she is referring to her low social or economic status. Also, the average onlooker would consider a young unmarried girl being pregnant as a humiliation at the very least. Her situation had been made low, hardly the hallmark of blessing.

As I later looked at the word for blessed, I found that in this verse it is used as a verb and not as an adjective as found in the Beatitudes. As I sorted out that this meant, if I had been wearing socks, they would have been blown right off. I found an incredible contrast. Verse 48 is describing two different views of the same situation. While Mary made reference to her humble state, the generations would actively call her and her situation blessed. Mary could see her situation from her limited human view and through the Holy Spirit that others would see it differently, a blessed situation, receiving the favor of God. Mary could see this because she knew God was doing great things for her.

Here is a seed of the promise of our joy that we can water. What our human eyes see and emotions feel may be one of burden or suffering, but God’s perspective can reveal another view, we have received His favor. How can this be? This comes from knowing God intimately. If we know Him well enough to trust in his love, his promises, and knowing He is doing great things for us, we can believe there is another perspective. Here are just a couple of God’s promises that apply here.

Jeremiah 29:11 - “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Romans 8:28 - “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

If we believe He speaks truth, then we can find the hope and comfort that lets us know our joy is coming. Our short term sufferings are for our long term good and for the good of God’s Kingdom. Perspective beyond our own may reveal blessings. Maybe we can’t even see that perspective. Our feelings may not change at that moment, but I find comfort in knowing that God says it is not happening in vain. I just may not be able to see it. Do you know Him well enough to trust Him for that? If not, is now the time to get to know Him better?

Choose Joy!