{"id":1283,"date":"2021-09-04T01:11:44","date_gmt":"2021-09-04T01:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/?p=1283"},"modified":"2021-09-03T15:12:04","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T15:12:04","slug":"surrender-to-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/surrender-to-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Surrender to Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

September 4-5<\/strong><\/p>\n

Surrender to Him \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter answered and said to Him, \u201cEven if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.\u201d Jesus said to him, \u201cAssuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.\u201d Matthew 26:33, 34<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some days we may be enthused, through the power of the Holy Spirit working within, by certain scriptures which encourage complete surrender to God. Perhaps it is a quote that shows up online, a book that we have read, a sermon we have heard or a song we have sung which inspires us to respond to the Lord wholeheartedly. On those days it may be easy to say, \u201cLord I will do anything for You, I will go anywhere<\/em>\u201d or sing the song \u2018All to Jesus I surrender all\u2019, but what does that really mean for me today? Are you truly willing to go as the Lord directs you? Can you lay down all that is precious to you in order to be obedient to the Lord?<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s reading we understand that Simon Peter struggled with this when he promised Jesus that he would even die for Him. \u2018Peter replied, \u201cEven if all fall away on account of you, I never will.\u201d \u201cTruly I tell you,\u201d Jesus answered, \u201cthis very night, before the cock crows, you will disown me three times.\u201d But Peter declared, \u201cEven if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.\u201d And all the other disciples said the same<\/em>\u2019 (Matthew 26:33-35). Yet, as we know, just a few hours later, he denied he even knew Jesus.<\/p>\n

And this is a great struggle we all will face at some point in our walk with the Lord. Maybe we say, \u201cLord I will do anything for You except \u2026\u201d I wonder which particular stumbling block we may be facing. We can all set restrictions, maybe sub-consciously, on our service to the Lord. We perhaps have fears about certain situations and these form an invisible barrier in our lives. Maybe it is travelling to certain foreign countries. Maybe it is flying or even just leaving the comforts of our own home to come to church. Maybe it is working with a certain person or a group of people, doing a particular job, standing up and praying out loud, or giving away our riches.<\/p>\n

Pretty soon we discover that we are not willing to do any and everything when it comes to serving the Lord. We put our willingness into a box and we set conditions on our service or on our roles. But is that true service? I may want to do a particular job within the church, but am I willing to lay that down and do what the Lord asks of me? It may be different to my wants or expectations. Am I a true servant of the Lord, or am I withholding something?<\/p>\n

In the end, the fullness of surrender comes when we find we are able to let go of our \u201canything but \u2026\u201d and trust God, we will always find blessing. The challenge is in discovering that God is sufficient to meet all our needs in each and every situation that He may put us in. Learning to overcome the challenges is the precise lesson the Lord has for us, not because He is a hard task master, but as a loving Father He alone knows where we need to grow in our ability to trust Him and what will ultimately bring blessings in our lives and give glory to Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 4-5 Surrender to Him \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Peter answered and said to Him, \u201cEven if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.\u201d Jesus said to him, \u201cAssuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.\u201d Matthew 26:33, 34 Some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1284,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions\/1284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}