Where We Stand Matters
Father, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that You are able to keep what I have committed to You until that Day. You, Lord, will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for Your heavenly kingdom. I am more than a conqueror through You who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate me from Your love, God, which is in Christ Jesus my Lord. My life is hidden with Christ in You, Almighty God. Have You not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which You promised to those who love You? My Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and You, my God and Father, who have loved me and given me everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort my heart and establish me in every good word and work.
What security I find in Your love, Lord God! You deliver me, preserve me, and strengthen me to serve You. Please use me for Your kingdom.
JOHN 10:29; 2 TIMOTHY 1:12; 2 TIMOTHY 4:18; ROMANS 8:37–39; COLOSSIANS 3:3; JAMES 2:5; 2 THESSALONIANS 2:16–17. Dr. David Jeremiah Life-Changing Moments with God
Are these words your prayer too? Are you living life with you in mind or in service to Christ Jesus in mind?
Is the words of Isaiah 6:9 NASB "Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”" a reflection of your life?
My Dear Reader, life is too short, not in the sense that there's too little time to do the things you want to do in life, but in the truth that believers are commissioned to the work of Christ that's to be done.
We may come to Christ early in life or later in life, but in all cases we have a limited time to live out the commission declared to us.
It's certainly not easy to deny ourselves. In this year of 2021, I have been going through many months of intensive training in this area. We are called to a life of denying self, to take up our own cross and follow after Jesus.
In this calling we need reminding and reinforcement of what we have began learning in Christ Jesus.
You think that the modern Church is better off than the first Churches?
News flash for everyone: We are far more accountable than they. We have many more resources and opportunities than they. We have a much shorter time in which to be about the Father's business. We are nearing the end of the age of the Gentiles. They were at its beginning. We are far nearer to the return of Jesus Christ than they were. We are seeing the fulfillment of Scriptures they only read about.
We can download or simply read God's Word in a matter of seconds. Can search it at will.
We can copy, paste, create images of passages and distribute the creation to the world in seconds.
Yet the vast majority of professing Christians are still doing as the people condemned in the Old Testament Israel...living for themselves, not getting it when life isn't going the way they want, not understanding why.
Read the prayer again. Are those words true of you? As another devotional that I read this morning said of that passage where Jesus said to take His yoke upon us. That was another way of saying to come along side of Him as His Disciples and learn from Him. If that's to be our focus, then denying ourselves is essential.
We have to deny ourselves in order to focus. It's not a new truth, but one you likely have already experienced in 12 plus years of your life. In school you are being taught to focus on what's being taught. You are graded on your ability to retain the information and then tested. You have to set aside your desires because it's required that you do in order to graduate.
The thing that trips up so many are the lies of Satan regarding obedience in Christ Jesus.
Lies about what you lose out on in your life. Lies about sin and whats acceptable or not to God. We face lies about the Word of God, lies about what it means or supposedly doesn't mean.
We are lied to about concerning getting the most out of life. That we earned this or earned that. That once we reach a certain age we can sit on our blessed assurance and coast until the Rapture or God calls us home. We are lied to about this thing called retirement.
We are told lies about getting the most out of life by stepping on others to get there.
We are deceived through peer pressure to embrace worldly thoughts and mindsets.
We need this prayer to be real in our lives. We need to be focused on our walk with Jesus.
Look at the words of this Hymn "Living for Jesus"
Living for Jesus, a life that is true,
Striving to please Him in all that I do;
Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free,
This is the pathway of blessing for me.
Refrain:
O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee,
For Thou, in Thy atonement, didst give Thyself for me;
I own no other Master, my heart shall be Thy throne;
My life I give, henceforth to live, O Christ, for Thee alone.
2. Living for Jesus Who died in my place,
Bearing on Calv’ry my sin and disgrace;
Such love constrains me to answer His call,
Follow His leading and give Him my all.
3. Living for Jesus, wherever I am,
Doing each duty in His holy Name;
Willing to suffer affliction and loss,
Deeming each trial a part of my cross.
4. Living for Jesus through earth’s little while,
My dearest treasure, the light of His smile;
Seeking the lost ones He died to redeem,
Bringing the weary to find rest in Him.
We won't be comparing notes in Heaven on our retirement that we did or didn't get to have.
We will be praising God, and probably sharing the stories of the love, grace and mercy bestowed upon us in the life we lived,
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