Scene Two: Mary

Dannah Gresh: You might be tempted to not give God everything because it feels scary! Here’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: There is no risk in depending wholly on God, laying everything on the line for His sake. He will never, ever fail you.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Surrender: The Heart God Controls, for May 4, 2023. I’m Dannah Gresh. 

Most of us don’t think of ourselves as remarkable people. We just live life and do what we need to do from day to day. 

But all this month here on Revive Our Hearts, we’re going to be looking closely at women who surrendered to God’s will for their lives, no matter what. They would have called themselves unremarkable women, too, but God used them powerfully! Today’s “unremarkable woman” is a great example. 

Yesterday on Revive Our Hearts, Nancy took us to Luke chapter 1, and we looked at some of the details surrounding Elizabeth, who became the mother of John the Baptist, even though she was past childbearing age. Nancy called that scene one. Here she is speaking at the Vertical Womenconference in Holland, Michigan.

Nancy: The second scene begins in verse 26 and continues through verse 38. I want to summarize it. During the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, the angel Gabriel is sent to a young woman named Mary, probably a young teenage girl, maybe fourteen years of age. She had never been with a man.

You have Elizabeth—the older woman who had been married for decades—and you have Mary, this young virgin, never married, never intimate with a man. She’s also promised that she’s going to have a son; she’s going to have a child.

Luke 1:34: “Mary said to the angel, ‘How will this be, since I am a virgin?’” Both situations were impossible! Zechariah and Elizabeth couldn’t have a baby; Mary couldn’t have a baby. How will this be? 

And the angel answered her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’” (vv. 35–37)

So the angel tells Mary . . . (They lived some distance apart. They would not have communicated on Instagram or whatever.) So the angel brings this news to Mary and the news of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, which was a miraculous pregnancy. That was what inspired faith in Mary!

If God had done the impossible for Elizabeth, the older woman; He could also do the impossible for her! So Mary’s response is my life’s verse, because I want this to be my response to every promise of God. She said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (v. 38). She just receives, by faith, this promise and this word. 

She says, “Here I am; I’m available. You can use me; You can have me. I’m available to God.” But what does she do now? 

Well, verse 39 tells us, “In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah [the southern part of the country] and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth” (vv. 39–40).

Mary must have known and believed that Elizabeth was a woman she could trust, someone who would understand, and someone who would care about what she was going through. So, here’s Elizabeth in her sixth month of pregnancy. She’s been in seclusion for five months. And here’s Mary at the very beginning of her pregnancy. 

Both were carrying this thing in their hearts that no one else could understand. But what others didn’t understand was that the spiritual darkness that had blanketed this world for so long was about to be over! The dawn was coming—“the dawn of redeeming grace,” as we sing it at Christmas.

Now as far as we know, Mary’s visit to Elizabeth was unexpected. Humanly speaking, I’d say that’s not the best time to have a houseguest show up for three months—during the final weeks of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. But I love that Elizabeth welcomed the younger woman.

Look at verses 41–43: 

When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in [Elizabeth’s] womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord." (vv. 41–45)

I love seeing how God weaves together the lives of these two women, one young, one old; one barren for many years, now six months pregnant, the other, a young teenage girl engaged to be married, a virgin now pregnant by the Holy Spirit. The older woman opens her heart, opens her home and she and Mary become—I think—a mutual gift to each other.

Mary may be helping Elizabeth around the house, maybe Elizabeth mentoring Mary, preparing her for marriage and for motherhood. Here are two women who both knew the Lord, loved His Word. Mary, I think, was probably company for Elizabeth, because remember that Zechariah could not talk during Elizabeth’s whole pregnancy.

Some scholars think that he was also struck deaf, he couldn’t hear or talk. So here’s Elizabeth, who has been by herself, and now God sends this younger woman to be friend, to be a companion. There’s sisterhood, even with the great age difference between them, there was friendship.

They were alone in their circumstances. There weren’t a lot of people who could understand. But they were both recipients of God’s grace, of God’s divine gifts. They would both have hard lives ahead, but God led them to each other. They drew strength and encouragement from each other.

You may feel alone at times in your walk with God. No one else understands. You may start to think, Am I crazy?! You feel alone in the calling God has given you. Let me encourage you to ask God to direct you to a sister, a friend in Christ, who will walk with you. She may be in the same season of life, maybe in a different season of life . . . younger or older.

When Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, when that baby was quickened within her, what did she do? She gave thanks to the Lord, and she blessed Mary, and she blessed Mary’s child! I love this. Elizabeth, the older woman, showed honor to the younger woman and her child.

Rather than expecting the younger woman to bless her, she blessed the younger woman who showed up at her house, and then she blessed the child Mary was carrying! Elizabeth could have felt jealous toward Mary, the younger woman, who had been honored in such an amazing way to be the mother of the Messiah.

But there’s no sense of comparison or insecurity. “Man, I’ve been walking with God a long time, my husband has been faithful to God. Why shouldn’t we have had the Baby, the Christ Child?” She accepted God’s place for her and rejoiced in the way God was choosing to use Mary. She celebrated Mary’s joy.

Sometimes it’s easier for us to mourn with those who mourn than it is to rejoice with those who rejoice. And that’s what I see Elizabeth doing here, rejoicing in this good gift! Children in the womb, let me just say this as a parentheses here, are a gift from God! 

They may not have been conceived in ideal circumstances, but they are a gift from God. It’s an occasion for joy and for celebration! I want to encourage you when you meet a woman who lets you know she is expecting or you can see that she’s expecting, would you celebrate, would you bless?

I love talking to women, saying, “I want to bless you. I want to bless your child. I am so grateful for this good gift God has given you.” God has not given me the gift of children—although I do have a lot of them in many different places—but not the gift of bearing children. But I love when God gives that gift to other women. I celebrate with them. I rejoice with them!

Here’s something I hope you never say: “You’re what?! Don’t you already have . . . ? How old are you? Just wait until they’re teenagers!” All these negative things you can hear women say to each other. Don’t say that. Celebrate, rejoice, bless these women, bless their children. 

And when we greet each other, not just pregnant and not just with physical children, but when we see each other, we ought to bless each other. I taught a whole program for Revive Our Hearts on the one verse in 2 Corinthians that says, “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” (v. 12) I did a whole twenty-five minute program on that.

I learned so much as I was studying that, about how as Christians we should greet one another. We should bless one another. We should infuse each other with joy and grace and hope when we see each other.

Elizabeth had to be tired, her feet had to be aching, her back had to be aching. She was exhausted. She was toward the end of her pregnancy, and she’s an old lad. But she’s joyful. She’s filled with the Spirit! She is blessing. We need to bless each other when we see each other, “I’m so glad to see you!”

We’ve missed a lot of this over the last couple of years. We need it! We need hugs; we need smiles; we need words that welcome and say, “I’m so glad to see you! What is God doing in your life? I’m grateful for you!” They warmly and enthusiastically and graciously blessed each other.

Elizabeth was humbled and honored that the mother of her Lord would come to her house. She didn’t see herself as worthy of this honor. This whole encounter is filled with joy, and that ought to be natural when believers come together, when we see each other.

Yes, we have hard things happeninging. Yes, we have sad things happening in our lives. I don’t walk up to the woman who has just lost her child and say, “Oh, joy!” We can weep, but I think we need a whole lot more joy with each other, too, to remind each other of the goodness of God. Joy ought to be natural! 

“Joy to the world, the Lord has come!” This is something to celebrate, and Elizabeth says to Mary in verse 45: “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Blessing, happiness, joy, and blessing are the byproduct, the fruit, of believing the promises of God. Do you want more joy in your life? Do you want more blessing? Then believe the Word of God. Believe what He has said, even when it doesn’t make sense, even when it seems impossible, even when it doesn’t fit with your plans.

Believe what God has said, and you will find blessing and joy! Those words were first spoken by an older woman who had experienced God’s miraculous intervention in her life to a younger woman who was in the throes of God upending her life and her plans.

And I am so thankful that when I was a young woman there were older women who encouraged me to believe God and believe His Word. I’m so grateful for those precious friends, most of whom are now with the Lord.

Today I’m an older woman, and for nearly six decades I’ve had the joy of walking with God. There have been mountains, and there have been valleys. There have been sunny days, and there have been gloomy days. There have been smooth roads, and there have been rough patches, but I have never ever regretted believing God!

The only regrets I have are those moments when I didn't believe God, when I got fearful or anxious or resentful and I doubted His goodness, I doubted His presence. I’ve had those moments. But through it all again and again and again, He has proved Himself to me faithful, to keep every promise He has made!

I want to say as an older woman, especially to you younger women, as I get closer to my finish line, as Elizabeth was getting closer to her finish line; I want to urge the younger women in my life to believe God. Believe God! He can be trusted! 

He can be trusted to write your story. There is no risk in depending wholly on God, laying everything on the line for His sake. He will never, ever fail you. Believe Him, believe His promises, believe His Word, and you will be blessed! 

Elizabeth and Mary are Titus 2 women—an older woman modeling, encouraging the younger woman to believe God. Elizabeth’s faith strengthened Mary’s faith. Elizabeth affirmed the promises of God: it’s that you can trust Him. There’s that beauty of challenging each other to believe the promises of God.

Elizabeth’s praise was contagious, her faith was contagious, and Elizabeth encouraged Mary to be a woman of praise and worship. Look at verse 46, that great beautiful song of Mary. (I talk about it in my Advent devotional.)

Mary says, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46). Do you think if Mary had been a grumpy, discontented, complaining old woman that Mary would have burst into this kind of praise? I don’t know.

All I know is praise breeds praise, blessing breeds blessing, worship breeds worship, joy breeds joy. We can be contagious! Verse 56 says Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and returned to her home.

What did they talk about during those three months? These were women in very different seasons of life—a fourteen-year-old and a woman who’s postmenopausal. What did they talk about?! What did they have in common?

Well, in the story that God was writing for their lives, both of their sons would be rejected and put to death. Elizabeth’s son would be beheaded by Herod, the king of Galilee, and Mary’s son would be crucified by an angry mob. So they prepared each other for what lay ahead. They strengthened each other, comforted each other, encouraged each other.

This illustrates for me the beauty and the importance of like-minded believers coming together and having oneness of heart, blessing and preparing each other. Those who have a genuine relationship with God, stirring up the work of God in each other’s hearts and strengthening our faith.

Elizabeth and Mary both strengthen us today, because they walked by faith when God could not be seen. They didn’t know the outcome of the story the way we do. They were willing to swim upstream against their culture. They were willing to believe God. 

There were just the two of them, there were not a lot of them. They were no match for all the corruption in the culture around them, but God called them. He chose them, and He used them as His instruments through whom He prepared the way for His Son’s arrival on earth. 

And as a result, we’re here today because the Son of God was born. His coming foretold by a man called John the Baptist. Both of them with mothers who believed God. You see, Elizabeth and Mary were not the center of this story; it wasn’t their story. It was His story. Our lives today—whether you are young or old or somewhere in-between—our lives exist to tell the great story of Jesus and His redeeming love!

Dannah: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth isn’t finished yet, but I wanted to jump in quickly to explain what she’s about to talk about. If you heard part one of her message yesterday on Revive Our Hearts, you’ll probably remember the fancy hat she held up to the audience. 

It was given to her by her mentor, Vonette Bright, and that hat was given to Vonette by her mentor, Dr. Henrietta Mears. Okay, here’s Nancy again.

Nancy: I’m going to go back to this hat for a moment. This hat symbolizes for me the ways that Henrietta Mears and Vonette Bright and other women of God, including my own mother, have impacted my life.

So many of these women passed on to me the baton of faith. They encouraged me; they strengthened me in my faith. Vonette Bright was forever challenging me to believe God for something bigger and greater and more. 

“Honey, we need to get a hundred thousand women together for a prayer meeting!” she would say to me. As she’s getting ready to die, she’s giving me these things to do, but she’s infusing faith in my heart!

Here’s the question that I ask myself when I see this hat, “Who am I passing this hat on to? Who gets it next? Who are the younger women that I am encouraging in their faith and in their walk with the Lord?” 

Who have you received your faith from, encouragement, comfort, faith in the promises of God? Who are you passing it on to? Mary sought out Elizabeth at a crucial point in her life. Elizabeth was available at a difficult point in her life, but received the younger woman.

Older women, who are you investing in? Who are you pouring into? You say, “I’m busy!” Don’t be too busy to be investing in some other women around you. There are younger women who desperately need your testimony, your faith, your prayers, your encouragement, your presence in their lives.

 

And younger women, who’s the Elizabeth in your life? When you get hard news or sad news or great news or you sense God is calling you to something, whose door do you go to, whose home do you go to? And so much of this, by the way, can happen in homes. I love the fact that this discipleship, this friendship, this companionship took place in a home! 

Who gave you the hat? And, who are you passing the hat on to?

Dannah: I love that concept! Who are you passing the hat on to? Nancy will be back to pray in a moment. By the way, if you’d like to see a photo of Henrietta Mears’s hat now in Nancy’s home, you’ll find it in the transcript of today’s program at ReviveOurHearts.com.

Elizabeth and Mary both would have considered themselves normal unremarkable women. But their willingness to lay aside their own plans and surrender to God’s will helped them be used mightily by God! Basically they said to Him, “Yes, Lord, whatever You want to do, I’m Yours.”

And they’re not the only women in history who have had that attitude. There’s a new book from Revive Our Hearts. It’s called Unremarkable: Volume 2. Like Volume 1, this new book contains the stories of ten women who said “yes” to God, and as a result they were used by Him in some incredible ways!

In fact, one of the chapters is on Henrietta Mears, who was the original owner of that hat Nancy was talking about. This month, when you make a donation of any amount, we’ll say thank you by sending you Unremarkable: Volume 1, along with an advanced digital copy of Volume 2.

Your support is so vital as we get closer to the end of our fiscal year and prepare for the summer months. To give, just visit ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959. Ask about the two books on unremarkable women whom God used in remarkable ways!

Tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts we’ll celebrate a woman who left what many would consider a remarkable career as a doctor to do what God considers a truly important task—that of being a stay-at-home mom! Now, let’s join Nancy as she prays a blessing over the women attending that conference in Michigan.

Nancy: Now would you join me in prayer? 

Lord, here we are, hundreds of women of all different ages, seasons of life. I pray, Lord, that You would speak to every heart as we leave this place . . . younger women who are longing for someone to come along and put their arm around them and love them to Jesus . . . maybe some older women who say, “I’ve never had anybody do this for me.” 

Oh, Lord, would You meld and mold and weave our lives together as you did Elizabeth and Mary in our churches, in our small groups. Bring the Elizabeths and the Marys together. May we as older women live lives that are models of Christ-likeness, that make the gospel believable, and may we teach what is good and train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be kind, to be keeping their homes, to be submissive, to be reverent.

Lord, give us all a greater sense of mission and purpose. We’re not just here to soak in, we’re not just here to take the hat from someone else, we’re here to pass it onto someone else. So, Lord, what a joy it would be if from now until heaven, every woman in this room would get in the race, in the game, off the bleachers—not just spectating, but actively engaged in encouraging and blessing the women around them. And, that we live out the beauty of the gospel together!

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth wants to help you pass on to others the freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness you have in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the ESV.

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