{"id":4262,"date":"2025-12-18T07:24:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T07:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/?p=4262"},"modified":"2025-11-30T23:26:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T23:26:18","slug":"marys-surrendered-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/marys-surrendered-yes\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary\u2019s Surrendered Yes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>Thursday, December 18<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mary\u2019s Surrendered Yes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The LORD says, &#8220;Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are one of the smallest towns in Judah, but out of you I will bring a ruler for Israel, whose family line goes back to ancient times.&#8221; <strong>Micah 5:2<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>When the angel Gabriel visited Mary, he didn\u2019t come with a small request. He came with a world-shaking announcement one that would alter her life forever. She would carry the promised King, the One whose reign would never end.<\/p>\n<p>Mary\u2019s response is one of the most remarkable moments in Scripture. Faced with uncertainty, potential shame, and a future she could not yet understand, she offered God a simple, surrendered yes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><em>\u201cI am the Lord\u2019s servant\u2026 May it be to me according to your word.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2014Luke 1:38<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Mary shows us what it looks like to prepare room for the King not by having everything figured out, but by opening our hearts in trust. Her surrender wasn\u2019t passive; it was courageous faith. She allowed God to work in ways beyond her understanding, believing that His plan was good even when the path was unknown.<\/p>\n<p>Advent invites us into that same posture.<\/p>\n<p>Where is God asking you to trust Him more deeply? Where is He inviting you to surrender your expectations, your fears, or your carefully laid plans? Where might He be calling you to simply say, \u201cLet it be according to Your word\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>Mary\u2019s yes became the doorway through which the King entered the world. Our yes however small becomes space for Him to work in us, too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prayer for today<\/strong>:<em> Lord, give me Mary\u2019s courage to trust You even when I cannot see the whole path. Open my heart to surrender more fully to Your will. Help me to respond to Your leading with faith, humility, and obedience. Let my life make room for the King. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thursday, December 18 Mary\u2019s Surrendered Yes The LORD says, &#8220;Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are one of the smallest towns in Judah, but out of you I will bring a ruler for Israel, whose family line goes back to ancient times.&#8221; Micah 5:2 \u00a0When the angel Gabriel visited Mary, he didn\u2019t come with a small request. He [&hellip;]<\/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-4262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4262","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=4262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4264,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4262\/revisions\/4264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}