Three years ago, during my yearly sabbatical in October, I was going to write my third devotional book. As I began to undertake the project I hit a roadblock of sorts. Things weren’t “flowing” like they should. A couple of days later, while on my morning prayer walk, I talked to the Lord about it. This is what He spoke to my heart: “If you will LAY IT DOWN, you can take it back up again.” I knew those were words similar to what Jesus spoke when He prophesied about His upcoming death in the book of John. In John 10:17, Jesus said, “The reason the Father loves Me is that I lay down my life in order to take it up again.” Did you hear that? God loves it when we LAY OUR LIVES DOWN … our dreams, our hopes, our plans for the future. It’s not so much that He wants us to “do without,” but He wants to know if we’ll put Him first and obey His voice. He’ll give it back to us if we will only LAY IT DOWN first.
Now, if we refuse to LAY IT DOWN, and we hold on to it, it’s then that the devil can steal it from us, BECAUSE WE’RE THE ONES HOLDING ON TO IT. But the devil can’t steal anything out of God’s hands! That’s why when we LAY IT DOWN willingly and surrender it to God, it becomes fully and completely His. Jesus said, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18). No one can take from you what you’ve completely surrendered to God.
So, I laid the plans to write my third devotional book down that year … and just like the Lord promised, I took it back up again the next year and completed “My Morning Walks with God, Volume 3.” Some might say, “You lost a year!” No, I gained all the benefits and rewards that come from surrendering myself to God’s plan. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
John 10:29
