{"id":18622,"date":"2014-03-21T00:40:04","date_gmt":"2014-03-21T04:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=18622"},"modified":"2014-03-21T00:41:26","modified_gmt":"2014-03-21T04:41:26","slug":"surrender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/03\/21\/surrender\/","title":{"rendered":"Surrender"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We have now entered the season of Lent. \u00a0For many Christians, Lent is taken as a time of preparation for the celebration of Easter where God miraculously redeemed mankind by resurrecting His Son from the dead. It is also a time to consider what Jesus said and did; and how we should be living in light of His Words. \u00a0\u271e \u2665<\/p>\n

During this season, here on the\u00a0Seeking Him<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0devotional blog, we have chosen to focus our devotionals on Jesus\u2019 instructions and admonition communicated in Matthew chapter 6\u2014the Beatitudes. \u00a0Jesus said, \u201cBlessed are\u2026\u201d and He went on to give instruction as to how to be \u201cblessed<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0To be \u2018blessed\u2019 is to \u2018be happy, or to be envied.\u2019 \u00a0Truly for the Christian, we ARE blessed\u2014oh, how very blessed we are! \u00a0Those who observe our lives should clearly be able to tell that we ARE blessed\u2014and that we KNOW it! \u271e \u2665<\/p>\n

Please consider Jesus\u2019 instructions along with us. \u00a0We pray that our words will encourage you and spur you on to be prepare your hearts for the joyous celebration of His Resurrection! \u00a0\u271e \u2665<\/p>\n

You\u2019re blessed when you feel you\u2019ve lost what is most dear to you. <\/span><\/strong>
\nOnly then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. <\/span><\/strong>
\nMatthew 5:4 MSG<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the major issues that I had with God, an All-Knowing Sovereignty, is how the world could be so messed up\u2014if God truly were in control, then how did things get so out of whack and why didn’t He do anything about it! \u00a0Why did it seem that this all-knowing, all-powerful and all-loving God had no interest or control of the world He created.<\/p>\n

When I questioned why should I trust a God that didn’t seem to care about me and my life, the Holy Spirit replied, “You don’t care about Me and what I’m doing.” \u00a0I paused and thought about it. \u00a0The truth was I didn’t care about God and what He was doing; all I cared about was what He could do for me and that He make my life exactly the way I wanted it. Me! \u00a0God wasn’t about anything bigger than being my personal genie.<\/p>\n

If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for Me, you will find it.
\nMatthew 10:39<\/p>\n

The Lord opened my eyes by pointing out that He was not the problem\u2014I was.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re blessed when you feel you\u2019ve lost what is most dear to you.
\nOnly then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.
\nMatthew 5:4<\/p>\n

I have always been worried about being “too normal” or “not me” anymore. \u00a0When I felt the Lord tugging at me to give Him my all, I hesitated. \u00a0I knew that obedience would mean that I would be changing. \u00a0I was afraid that if I let God change me, then I would no longer be myself and would instead be some robot lacking personality.<\/p>\n

I can laugh about it now, but then, I was truly frightened! \u00a0I have come to realize that the changes God wants to make in me are simply Him pulling outward who He truly made me to be inwardly. \u00a0Before society and life touched me, God knew me. \u00a0Before I ever labeled myself ugly or unworthy God knew me and that is not who He planned for me to be.<\/p>\n

Giving God that which we hold dearest leaves room for us to be embraced by God because there’s more room for Him! \u00a0I have grown so much thanks to my obedience to the Lord. \u00a0(Please know it’s a daily thing!) \u00a0And I love the me<\/em> that He is showing me that He made me to be\u2014His workmanship!<\/p>\n

* ~\u00a0\u2665\u00a0~\u00a0\u271e<\/strong>\u00a0~\u00a0\u2665~ *<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank You, Lord, for making me who I am. \u00a0Thank You for caring about me and loving me and teaching me. \u00a0Let me forever and always make the daily decision to make more room for You and surrender my life to You. \u00a0In Jesus’ name, amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  We have now entered the season of Lent. \u00a0For many Christians, Lent is taken as a time of preparation for the celebration of Easter where God miraculously redeemed mankind by resurrecting His Son from the dead. It is also a time to consider what Jesus said and did; and how we should be living […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[3146,127,3367,1287,425,5784,2139,5865,1405,3174,1026],"class_list":["post-18622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-ahmee-bronaugh","tag-beatitudes","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-jesus-speaking","tag-lent","tag-matthew-1039","tag-matthew-54","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-surrender","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-4Qm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18624,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18622\/revisions\/18624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}