Jimmy On The Go!

PRAYER: Prayer is spending one-on-one time with God.  Some people are using the word “encounter” to describe the dynamic, two-way, personal interaction that God desires to have with us in prayer.  It is true that prayer is partly discipline.  But, if that’s all it is and never goes beyond that, then it’s like a mechanical marriage that looks good on the outside but has nothing on the inside.  The discipline aspect of prayer should only serve the passion and intimacy of prayer – it should never ever replace it nor ever be the focus or goal.  It should not “rule” us.  It is the thing that serves not the thing to be served.  Jesus said that there is joy in prayer [Isaiah 56:7]. Our lives of prayer should be joyful.  It’s like spending time with your favorite loved one and being loved on by the one you are jealous for.

Check It: What is prayer to you?  What is your prayer life like?  Is it obligation and/or guilt driven?  Or is it joy driven?  If it’s time to upgrade your prayer life then start asking God to help you discover the reason and source of the joy that is “inexpressible and filled with glory” which he desire for your life!  A good place to start might be 1 Peter 1:8!

I saw this statement earlier today: “My worth to God in public is what I am in private.”  With all due respect, since I am not exactly sure where the person was originally intending with this statement,  I whole-heartedly disagree with this statement with every fiber of my being. Our worth [or value] to God is based on nothing (absolutely nothing!) else than the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to pay what we could not pay for our sin, to forever take away our filthy unrighteousness, and in exchange, to give us His own righteousness as our worth/value.

But, perhaps you will say that such saying like this motivates you to live more godly in your private life. True, it might motivate you.  But, it won’t change you.  God’s Word is very clear that it is only the Holy Spirit that can change you inside out in a way that is truly befitting of God’s heart for the kind of holiness he desires from us.  Anything else is a change on the surface at best.  So if there is any motivation I can give you, then I would say:  Be convicted by the Holy Spirit,  “run” to the Holy Spirit for help,  surrender and rely on the Holy Spirit and enjoy the Holy Spirit.

Joy out of repentance based on the lavish grace of the Cross, trust and dependency on the Holy Spirit, and hope in Christ. These are the sources of true transformation and holiness.  The Gospel is consisted of these; our worth is consisted of these.  It is not our efforts, our good works or our motivational talk that determines how much we are worth to God, but Jesus and Jesus alone.

Here is what the Bible says is the worth of everyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ through grace alone:

John 15:15 - We are His friends
John 1:12 - We are His children
Romans 8:17 - We are fellow heirs with Christ
Jude 1:1 – We are His beloved
Revelation 21:2 – We are the “Bride of Christ”

As Apostle Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 15:10,

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Amen and amen.

True maturity: Jesus went to the cross “for the joy” [Hebrews 12:2]  Obedience without joy?  You’re a servant. [John 15:15]  With joy?  You are a “friend of the bridegroom.” [John 3:29]

Check it: Is your idea of maturity one of “obedience to God” and “being a good person” as the ultimate end goal?  Or, is it to be absolutely, crazy in love with God and so obey “for the joy”?  [John 14:15] There is a huge difference.

I thought this was pretty funny. I was watching a webcast of a church service where a pastor was interviewing a girl in front of a congregation as the girl was giving a testimony of having some bumps on her body being miraculously healed.  She said that after receiving prayer, she went home and discovered that two out of three of her bumps were gone.

The pastor then asked: How did you know they were gone?

The girl: Because, when I checked, two of them were gone.

The pastor: Where did the bumps go?

The girl: Uh, um…to…Jesus?

It totally reminded me of a story I heard that illustrated how kids in sunday school think that the answer to any question given in Sunday school is supposed to be “Jesus.”  A sunday school teacher was playing a game of “Who am I?”  She said to the class: “I like to climb tress, I like to eat nuts, I am brown, and I have a bushy tale…who am I?”  The teacher was stunned that there was a long period of silence until finally one little boy spoke up an said, “Well, I know the answer is supposed to be ‘Jesus’ but it sure sounds like a squirrel to me!”