The World's Greatest Short Prayer

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. ³⁶ 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. ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.” ³⁸ And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.Luke 1:35-38 (ESV)

We honor Mary because she was willing to embrace God’s will for her life, even though it cost her immensely. She experienced the suffering associated with people, including her fiance at first, thinking she was a “loose” woman who got pregnant outside of marriage. The Roman Catholic Church added non-biblical status to Mary, claiming that she was born without a sin nature through what is called the Immaculate Conception. This would make her the equal of Jesus. The RCC also claims that she was taken directly up to heaven upon her death, which is called the Assumption. These erroneous doctrines make Mary a kind of super-human Mother of God, an undisguised attempt to elevate her into a type of deity on the par with Diana of the Ephesians, a pagan goddess. But in reality Mary was a simple girl whose life was intersected by a strange and fabulous call to be, not the Mother of God, but the mother of the human side of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Messiah King. Jesus’ divine nature came directly from the Holy Spirit, who overshadowed Mary and conceived the God-Man in Mary’s womb.

Whenever we may be confronted by circumstances that are confusing or painful, or if God asks us to do something that seems strange and that will cost us, we are well to remember Mary’s simple yet profound response when this happened to her. “Let it be to me according to your word.” I encourage you to pray the following 10-word prayer. It may be the most life-impacting declaration you ever make.