{"id":21451,"date":"2017-09-09T00:10:39","date_gmt":"2017-09-09T07:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/littlecountrychurch.org\/?p=11577"},"modified":"2017-09-09T00:10:39","modified_gmt":"2017-09-09T07:10:39","slug":"september-9-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/09\/09\/september-9-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"September 9, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Dear Readers,<\/span><\/h4>\n

Enjoy this previously posted devotional as we begin this year\u2019s study of \u201cLiving By His Example.\u201d<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201cThen Mary said, \u2018Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to Your word.\u2019\u201d<\/em> Luke 1:38<\/span><\/p>\n

Trusting Beyond Understanding<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

I once found myself in a situation that made no sense whatsoever, at least to my mind. My husband was calling for a radical lifestyle change. He felt he had heard from God. I remember how I felt as he relayed this information to me. No one does this. It\u2019s not logical.\u00a0 It\u2019s crazy risky.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t understand any of it. And I resisted it until I came to believe, myself, that this unheard of scheme that I could not wrap my mind around was truly from God.<\/span><\/p>\n

Can you even begin to imagine the thoughts that swirled in Mary\u2019s head as she heard the news that she would conceive in her womb and give birth to the Son of the Highest? She couldn\u2019t reason it out. Virgins don\u2019t have babies. They just don\u2019t. And how is it that the Son of God could be conceived in a human womb? There was no precedent for anything like this in the history of the planet. Mary was young, poor, and engaged to a man called Joseph. This news was certainly going to shake things up. How could this be?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet something in Mary believed that with God nothing was impossible. Her response was humble obedience and submission. She didn\u2019t have to know all the answers. She wasn\u2019t looking for guarantees of a happy outcome. She simply trusted God and declared her willingness to be used of Him in whatever way the Lord saw fit.<\/span><\/p>\n

I want to have a heart like Mary. I want to readily believe God and be yielded to His purposes.\u00a0 Elizabeth greeted Mary with these words: \u201cBlessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord\u201d<\/em> (Luke 1:45).<\/span><\/p>\n

Believe God and watch Him fulfill His purposes in you. Nothing is impossible with God. Are you willing?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTrust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.\u00a0 In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths\u201d<\/em> (Proverbs 3:5-6).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFather, You have made us for great and wonderful purposes. As You speak Your word to our hearts, may we declare as did Mary, \u2018May it be unto me according to Your word.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Readers, Enjoy this previously posted devotional as we begin this year\u2019s study of \u201cLiving By His Example.\u201d \u201cThen Mary […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5zZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}