{"id":24987,"date":"2015-03-19T00:20:31","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T04:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=24987"},"modified":"2015-03-18T23:40:50","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T03:40:50","slug":"surrender-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2015\/03\/19\/surrender-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Surrender"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Recorded in the Gospel of John, our Lord made seven statements referring to Himself as I AM<\/em><\/strong>\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

I AM<\/strong> The Light of the World
\nI AM<\/strong> The Bread of Life
\nI AM<\/strong> The Door <\/em><\/span>
\nI AM<\/strong> The Good Shepherd
\nI AM<\/strong> The True Vine <\/em><\/span>
\nI AM<\/strong> The Way, The Truth, and The Life<\/em><\/span>
\nI AM<\/strong> The Resurrection and The Life<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Each week during this season of Lent, here on the Seeking Him<\/em> blog, we will be focusing our devotionals on a different aspect of Jesus\u2019 revelation of Himself as I AM<\/em><\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0 The aim of Lent should be to prepare our hearts for the remembrance of Jesus\u2019 sacrifice\u2014His trial and torture, the Crucifixion and His death\u2026and above all, the celebration of His Resurrection from the dead. \u00a0We pray that this will be a great encouragement to each of you who read them. \u00a0And that all of us will consider the significance of Jesus\u2019 words and, through them, be helped as we remember and are thankful for all Jesus went through during the last few weeks of His life on this earth.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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

As I was reading John 10:11-18<\/a>, I kept going back to these two verses:<\/p>\n

This is why the Father loves Me,
\nbecause I am laying down My life so I may take it up again.
\nNo one takes it from Me, but I lay it down on My own.
\nI have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again.
\nI have received this command from My Father.
\nJohn 10:17-18 HCSB<\/p>\n

I love the way verse 18 reads in NLT:<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did you catch that?\u2014Jesus chose to surrender Himself<\/em> <\/strong>to God\u2019s plan voluntarily. \u00a0He chose to become our Good Shepherd<\/span>. \u00a0In John 6:38 (HCSB) Jesus says, \u201cFor I have come down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me.\u201d \u00a0Christ had the ability, the authority to say NO. \u00a0Instead, He chose to lay down His life<\/em> for us in accordance to His Father\u2019s will.<\/p>\n

We face the same choice<\/em>. \u00a0We can either go it on our own or we can voluntarily submit ourselves to God\u2019s plan. \u00a0Titus 2:14 reminds us that Christ \u201c…gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for Himself a people for His own possession, eager to do good works.\u201d \u00a02 Timothy 1:9 (NIV) tells us, \u201cHe has saved us and called us to a holy life\u2014not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christ led by example. \u00a0He became our example. \u00a0He is our Good Shepherd<\/span>\u2014the one who cares for us and leads us to safety. \u00a0He has called us. \u00a0Yet the choice is ours<\/em>. \u00a0No one else will make the decision for us. \u00a0No one is going to snatch our struggles from us. \u00a0We must willingly…voluntarily…surrender our will to His and allow Him to lead us.<\/p>\n

For me, the surrender is daily; sometimes minute-by-minute. \u00a0But when I do and I trust my Good Shepherd<\/span> following His lead, well, therein lies the victory!<\/p>\n

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

Jesus, I am so glad You willingly chose to follow God\u2019s plan. I am thankful You know me. I am grateful I can listen to Your voice and follow where You lead. But most of all, I am thankful You laid Your life down for me. In Your precious name I pray, Amen \u2013 it is so!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recorded in the Gospel of John, our Lord made seven statements referring to Himself as I AM\u2026 I AM The Light of the World I AM The Bread of Life I AM The Door I AM The Good Shepherd I AM The True Vine I AM The Way, The Truth, and The Life I AM […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"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":[5327,5889,3367,1287,425,8578,8579,8577,8602,8064,8605,3174,8604,8603],"class_list":["post-24987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-2-timothy-19","tag-cynda-cottrill","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-i-am-the-good-shepherd","tag-jesus-is-the-good-shepherd","tag-john-1011-18","tag-john-1017-18","tag-john-638","tag-lay-down-his-life","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-submitting","tag-titus-214","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-6v1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24987","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\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24987"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24990,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24987\/revisions\/24990"}],"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=24987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}