Blessed is She Who Believed 

“And blessed (happy, to be envied) is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of the things that were spoken to her from the Lord.” Luke 1:45 (AMPC)

It’s a compelling thought: God speaks jaw-dropping promises to His women, and if we dare to believe Him, we’ll be blessed.

Consider Mary, an average young woman living a quiet little life in Nazareth, tending to her family’s chores while daydreaming about her engagement to Joseph.

Suddenly, the angel Gabriel steps from Heaven onto her humble patch of earth and says something outrageous. He makes a promise that could never be fulfilled through mere human effort.

He declares the upcoming birth of a Savior — the long-awaited Messiah — through her, a virgin. He makes it clear she is God’s chosen vessel and through her, the stunning plan of redemption will occur. And then Mary does something equally outrageous.

She believes.

In spite of her initial misgivings and not quite understanding how it will all work, she chooses to believe what God tells her. And history declares her blessed among women.

Meet the Scripture where it all started, the first chapter of Luke. I call it every woman’s verse:

“And blessed (happy, to be envied) is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of the things that were spoken to her from the Lord” (Luke 1:45).

God speaks. He gives the promise. And we believe.

Simple, right? Yet believing God’s promises is sometimes the hardest part. Believing is daring. Believing flies in the face of all we’re experiencing. We feel uncertain, scared we’re making it all up. Our faith feels woefully wobbly and feeble.

But if we dare to believe, we’ll be blessed among women. This truth holds the capacity to anchor our hearts while we face the two struggles every woman experiences.

Our first struggle is to believe we are who God says we are.

Unfortunately, we often believe less about ourselves — that how we are is how we’ll always be.

“My mother was moody, and I am, too.”

“My father was short tempered, and that’s just the way our family is wired.”

Struggles with stubbornness, strife, feelings of inadequacy, or the ability to hold a grudge are simply a given — a family legacy like freckles or muscular legs or blue eyes.

We’ve accepted a lesser version of ourselves.

What if, like Mary, we pondered and then truly accepted and dared to believe that we are who God says we are?

    Beautiful (Song of Solomon 1:15);

    Accepted (Ephesians 1:6);

    New creations (2 Corinthians 5:17);

    Precious in His sight (Isaiah 43:4);

    Unquestionably free (John 8:36);

    Chosen (John 15:16).

Our second struggle is to believe the stunning promises God whispers to our hearts.