I have a friend that is an excellent physical therapist. She is so excellent that she notices my bad posture when I am standing and has mentioned it to me (lovingly) a few times. It is actually an awakening for me that posture is important and people notice it. Whether we like it or not our posture sends a message to the people around us. If we have bad posture when standing they might think we don’t drink enough milk, or we are disinterested. Therefore, I decided I’m going to try to make my posture better.

I researched the definition of posture and found 2 definitions. The first one is the literal one, which refers to the positioning of our body or the way we stand or sit. That is what my friend noticed, my bad posture literally. The second definition is the way we handle things, or our attitude when we are dealing with something. This got my attention “big time.” I realized that my posture in dealing with something in my life, given or allowed by God, is something that I need to be aware and intentional about. I need to have a good posture in receiving things, especially the things that the Lord gives me or asks me to do. My posture (attitude) can send a message to God as to whether I like what He is giving me or not. How many times in my life did my automatic attitude toward something that I received or that the Lord asked me to do was rejected because I didn’t understand it? News Flash, most of the things that God gives us or asks us to do are things we don’t fully comprehend.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Luke chapter 1, received a message from God through the angel Gabriel. She was going to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit and give birth to the savior of the world. She was confused and asked the angel how it was going to happen. Now, I can just imagine how she felt seeing an angel, and then, the angel spoke and said something about being pregnant while she is engaged to Joseph. Imagine what Joseph will think and the people around them. It is by this world’s standards, “Crazy”! Mary did not understand how this was going to transpire, and despite her confusion, she said in verse 38, ““I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true”. Now, we could have a different story right now if Mary did not say that. If her confusion scared her so much that she rejected what God was giving her, we would have been deprived of a savior and the opportunity to hear an example of somebody who doesn’t understand, but yet still obeyed. It’s all because of her posture towards the things of the Lord.
In contrast, Sarah laughed when the Lord spoke to them about being pregnant at an old age. Abraham was old and she wasn’t much younger. In Genesis 18:12…
“So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master–my husband–is also so old?””
Sarah was in the same situation where she would be pregnant and the circumstances around her did not support what the Lord was saying or giving her. She laughed and doubted what the Lord would give to her. Both situations call for a miracle, out of the ordinary display of power, but their posture was different. Mary did not understand how things would transpire, but she understood who said it and who was giving it. While Sarah only understood her limitations and not the power of God and His plans.

These scenarios made me realize that our posture should always be “Yes Lord!”. A lot of times we ask for God to move supernaturally, but then, when He is actually about to do it and asks us to be a partner in it, we show him bad posture, bad attitude, which sends a message to Him that we don’t want it. As a father, I see this happen many times when I try to feed my son. He only likes certain foods, and when I try to offer him something He is not familiar with, he rejects it right away. One day I said firmly, you are going to eat what I serve you. I tried to spoon feed him so he would eat it, but he was facing sideways and only turned his head a little bit so he could limit the food that I put into his mouth. His lips might be diagonally able to receive some food, but his body was facing the side. In turn, as I feed him, the food that I know would be good for him falls to the ground. Posture, limits what God can do in your life, not because He is not able, but because we send a message we don’t want it.

I love what Mary said to the angel, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true”.