Do God's Blessings Cause You to Praise?

On today's episode of the Iron Saints Podcast, we cotinue our journey through the Gospel of Luke. In previous devotionals we broke down Zechariah's doubts of blessing long awaited as well as Mary's servant attitude towards an impossible calling from God. We open today with the story of Mary and Elizabeth bringing John and Jesus together for the first time and Mary's response to the Lord on his blessings.

As always I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the reading and as well should you have any prayer requests you would like me to lift up on the podcast don't hesitate to reach out to any of the social media or email below.

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Luke 1:39-56 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” 

46 And Mary said, 

                  “My soul magnifies the Lord, 
            47       and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 
            48       for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. 
      For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 
            49       for he who is mighty has done great things for me, 
      and holy is his name. 
            50       And his mercy is for those who fear him 
      from generation to generation. 
            51       He has shown strength with his arm; 
      he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 
            52       he has brought down the mighty from their thrones 
      and exalted those of humble estate; 
            53       he has filled the hungry with good things, 
      and the rich he has sent away empty. 
            54       He has helped his servant Israel, 
      in remembrance of his mercy, 
            55       as he spoke to our fathers, 
      to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” 

56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home. 

Transcript

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints podcast with your host, Dan Willis. Welcome back, Saints. It's a new day, new scriptures to read, new things to enjoy. I hope you guys have been enjoying the start of Luke. I swear we're going to get out of chapter one here eventually. For those of you that are new to the podcast, welcome. For any of you that have enjoyed the first few episodes, I would greatly appreciate we are now seeing the podcast pop up on itunes, spotify, Google podcast, it's all there for you guys. So if you guys can take the time, if you're finding any value in this, if you could hop on to wherever you listen to this and give it a quick review, it would be greatly appreciated. But without further ado, let's continue our walk in Luke today. Yesterday we had finished with Mary's story, the Coming of Gabriel, where that brings value for us. We had started, of course, with Zachariah. Now we see what's next. Let's get down to it here. All right, guys, so we picked back up starting Luke, chapter one of verse 39 39. Again, guys, I am always reading from the ESV, but you are welcome to follow along if you'd like and whatever translation you prefer. If you're listening in the car, rest assured I'm going to read it for you here, so you don't need to have a Bible handy. You'll always have the scripture available to you before we break it down. 1s In those days, Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zachariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby slept in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She exclaimed with a loud cry, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is it 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 leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. And Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. He has looked on the humble state of his servant, where, behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me. And holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear Him. From generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich. He is sent away empty. He has helped his servant israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever. And Mary remained with her about three months and returned home. So first off here, because we are continuing this journey with Mary and Elizabeth, there's no male characters in this. And oftentimes I find that as men, we kind of disconnect a little bit when it's all about something that's not directly tied to us. Unfortunately, we miss out on a lot of the blessings that we can pull from the word when we do that. 1s While this may be two women rejoicing in the labors that they have, 1s I think there's something that's really, really special in this for us. So Mary song that she burst into here is really, really a reminder or to us of what an appropriate response to blessing can look like in our lives. And I would hope that right now in the season, even if you're in a season of trial, hopefully you are in a season of blessing, irregardless of your trials. But think back to times of blessing that you've had in your life, and what is your response been? I find so often, like we see with Zechariah, we ask the Lord so long for a blessing to come into our lives. We ask for some kind of a sign or some kind of a testimony to God in our life, showing that he's with us, he's for us. We may have been asking for help or something in the world, but oftentimes, once we receive that thing, the blessings and the need for the Lord seem to dwindle a little bit. We see the focus of need overtaken by that fulfillment. And it's not bad to enjoy the blessings of the Lord gives us. But I think what we see here is the more genuine, more true response the Lord is looking for. When blessed, it's not that difficult to imagine ourselves in a position where we've received Christ. This is something that while Mary is literally physically receiving the body of Christ, we ourselves have gone through this journey daily. We take up our cross daily. Christ is there with us and for us. How have you rejoiced today? How have you celebrated that love, that passion, that commitment from the Lord? How have you celebrated your salvation and grace today? I really want you to take a moment and wrestle through that as we head to the end here. I really want to emphasize, guys, even in the hardest times, even in the darkest moments, paul in jail, daniel in the lionstem job. At the end of his wit. There is always time to praise the Lord. There's always time to be thankful for those blessings that he has shown you. And I challenge you to day. If you're going through a season of trial, do that. Go back. Consider the blessings that the Lord has given you in your life. Consider the times that he has shown up and rejoice. Rejoice that the Lord has not abandoned you, that he's with you now, even in your trials. If you're in a season of plenty, don't take it for granted. Rejoice. Wake up. Rejoice and be blessed. Rejoice and sing praise. Rejoice and thank Him in prayer, in his word. Take the time. Rejoice today. Lord, thank you so much for the Iron Saints, for the men that are picking up this podcast and listening to it. I pray that as they get ready to head into their day, as they are sharpening themselves and preparing for the world around them that they would see the blessings that you have and they would rejoice. Lord, I pray for those going through a time of trial and struggle. Lord, the things of this world, the sins of this world can drag us down and take our eyes off of you. They can take that gaze off of you. And I pray that that would not be the case, Lord, that even in these times of trial and struggle, that we would turn to you, we would look to you, we would pray to you, and we would rejoice. Just as Mary did, at the blessing of receiving Christ and being able to walk alongside Him. Thank you so much for all the men that are listening and any unspoken prayers that may be out there today. Lord, I just lift those up to you as well. Remember these men, walk with them, bless them in your name. Great. So guys, that is it for today. We will be back again tomorrow with another episode. We're going to continue through our journey. And Luke, tomorrow we get to do The Begaps, which I'm very excited for. I always enjoy going through the big gaps, so that will be there. If you guys do have a moment to leave a review, again, that is greatly appreciated. And as always, guys, if you have requests, feel free to reach out on any of our social media channels, whether that's Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or directly via email with any pair requests that you might have that you would like me to lift up on the podcast. As always, that will be done with an air of anonymity. It will always be a pseudonym or first name only that I use as I lift up your prayer requests. But if that's something that interests you, please don't hesitate to reach out on social or via email and I would be more than happy to do that. Have an amazing day, guys. I look forward to continuing tomorrow with another excerpt from Luke. Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all. Until next time.