12/17/2018
Do you speak and walk with Jesus every day? Is He your constant companion, and closest friend? We should be close to Him every single moment, and yet, how often we, as Christians, wander off on our own and forget to call on Him. How often we just pack up our things and walk off on our own for periods of time. Have you done this? Does looking down at the nail holes in your hands remind you of who you are, and lead you home?
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
“But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
Galatians 2:20, 6:14 ESV
My father passed away some years ago, but my mother is still alive... she is 93 years old, and I love her dearly. She lives in Virginia, and I live in Tennessee, so I can’t just drop in to see her, but I can easily call her.... yet I find that periods of time can separate my phone calls. When I do call at last, and I speak to her on the phone, I find those times wonderful and the sound of her voice gives me great comfort and joy, so I ask myself why I waited so long. Then at the end of our conversation I say that I will call again soon.
I let everyday life get in the way of calling home. It isn’t something that I am proud of, and I miss my mother’s voice, but the constant hectic pace of life gets in the way, and before I know it one day has become two... then a week... then a month. Then, when I finally call, and realize how wonderful just hearing her voice is, and how excited she is that I have called at last, I promise myself to do better; only to find that one day turns to two once again.
Habits are formed by repetition, and even simple things like calling our parents are habits we must consciously form. There is a woman who reads these devotionals every day, and she calls her father in law each morning on the way to work. The first time she told me this I loved her immediately... I saw in her something I had lost... she was once in the “habit” of calling him, and yet it had become more... she has since formed a daily relationship of love.
Our faith can become intermittent too. We can love the Lord with all our heart, and still let life get in the way. We can habitually go to church each Sunday, but not walk with Jesus each day. Maybe we are just in the habit of going to church at Christmas and Easter, and on those days promise ourselves to attend each Sunday. Well, you get the picture... our good intentions aren’t lived out in our lives. We don’t begin living out that relationship of faith and love.
This was me for many years... walking with Jesus on most Sundays, and walking alone through the world during the week. Oh, I would pray my rote prayer at mealtime, and call on Him when I needed help, but for the most part God had Sunday, and the world had the rest of my week. Then I found a true relationship with God, and Jesus Christ... it reordered my life, and changed everything about me. The peace and joy I had once felt on occasion had become something I experienced every day. Praying ceased to be a routine recitation, and became a conversation, and I began to dine at The Lord’s Table as if it were a family meal... not a quick bite on the run during my busy life. Jesus became my constant companion, the Holy Spirit taught me every day, and God was the Father that I suddenly called all the time... not just when I found time, or remembered to. I found what it truly meant to wake up each day saying “Thank you Lord for your many Blessings!”
This is what happens when we stop watching Jesus carry His cross to Calvary, and when we stop seeing Him nailed to it and hearing His cross dropped into the hole with a thud as it is raised! This comes as a result of our picking up our own cross, and being crucified with Him... feeling the weight of the cross ourselves, and the nails penetrating our own hands.
Pictures and paintings depict three crosses standing together on Calvary, but when we live our faith as we should, suddenly we see thousands upon thousands there. We see too many to count, and hear the constant sound of the hammer, the thud of the crosses being erected, and the moaning of souls as they leave behind old lives to join Jesus there. The sound of suffering and death being replaced by joy and eternal life... we are crucified, our stones rolled away, and our lives reclaimed...
“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”
Romans 6:5-6 ESV
Today I am going to walk with Jesus throughout my day and we are going to talk about all the joys and sufferings in my life. I am going to tell Him about how I need to call my mother, and He is going to smile at me and say “I know what it feels like to wait for your call. Call her now!” Are you putting off that call to your parent... how about Jesus? Have you reached out to Him as you should? Call Him Now!
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who walks with me every moment of every day. Thank you for your patience as you waited for me to call you and say “Father it is me!” Thank you Holy Father for responding “Come on home Son!” and straightening my path. Lord God, I am so thankful for the love and obedience of Jesus, and the mercy and grace you show me through Him. I am blessed beyond measure, and even in those times when I suffer in this world, when I am shouldering my cross, I am filled with your joy and peace. Though I suffer you are my strong tower, and my release from sin! Praised be your name Father, and great are you as you welcome me to your many blessings with open arms. Magnificent is your will, and my place in it! Wonderful my seat at the family table. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who waits for my call with anticipation and excitement. Great is your love that spans the times when I am wandering alone, and perfect the nail holes in my hands that remind me whose son I am... and lead me home.
“Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.”
1 Peter 4:1-2 ESV
Rich Forbes