What does Jesus live to do?

Jesus lives to make intercession for us.  Did you realize that?  Heb. 7:25 says, “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

What does that mean for us today?  He is alive so that He can present the merits of His death on the cross as reasonable evidence as to why we should be saved.

He is making intercession for us.  Intercession means pleading on behalf of another person.  When we believe in Jesus and accept Him as our Savior, He pleads with His Father to remember that the sacrifice for our sins has been made.

Unlike the high priests of old, Jesus doesn’t have to make sacrifice over and over for His own sins first, and then our own.  He did this once, for all, and He is able to present that evidence to His Father when pleading on our behalf.

Our Savior is pleading on our behalf.  Not only did He die to save us, but He lives to save us, as well.  He will not stop.  He will remain our High Priest forever.  When we are saved to the uttermost, we are saved forever, completely, and we are whole.  There is nothing lacking because His salvation renders us faultless.

Not only that, but as we slip and blunder along the way, He offers the help we need to get back in line with His will and in our relationship with Him.

Isn’t this a wonderful truth for us to embrace today?  God wants us to be encouraged, understanding we are not alone, as the enemy would have us believe, but we have One who literally lives to be on our side.  Thank You, Jesus!

Grateful,

jamie

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You are as important as a spider

Pr. 30:28:  “The spider (one of the things that is little on the earth) skillfully grasps with its hands, and it is in king’s palaces.”

Strange verse to pick?  Let’s see.  In Acts 6 when there was a complaint that some widows were being neglected.  The twelve believed they were supposed to remain in prayer and in the Word, so they summoned the growing number of disciples and told them to, “seek out from among you some men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

The whole multitude was pleased with this decision and seven disciples were chosen to take on the task.

How do I relate this to a spider?  Spiders, indeed, are little.  They can be scary to some, insignificant to others, and tolerated by others.  However, to those who appreciate their skills and their contribution to the balance of nature, they are amazing and extremely important.

The same goes for the “little” people in the kingdom of Christ.  Sometimes we feel too small, somewhat insignificant, and sometimes simply tolerated.  However, God gave us all specific skills and abilities we can use for His kingdom.  We are all part of the balance and each of us is important.

We must not; however, wait until we’re called upon to decide to use what we have for the Lord.  When the seven were chosen it was because they were already of good reputation, and full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.  They may not have had a chance to put their specific skills to work prior to this; however, they had already made the choice that what they did have would be used for the Lord.  They were already of good reputation.  They were already full of the Holy Spirit.  They were already tapping into God’s wisdom.

We can do the same.  We can make sure that we are daily walking with the Lord, being fed His wisdom, being filled with His Holy Spirit, and ensuring that we are making wise choices that lead to a good reputation.  Like the spider, we were given certain skills for the work in our King’s palace.  When the time comes that our specific skills are needed to complete the task, we will be found ready.

So, see?  You are important, and your skills are just as good as those of the spider.  Keep learning with the Master.

Feeling sticky,

jamie

Don’t underestimate your value

Pr. 15:32:  “He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding.”

You are worth so much to God.  You are His child and His creation.  He created you exactly the way He needed you to be to fulfill your purpose.  I tell my daughter all the time that she is “perfectly Kaili.”  Like you and like me, God created her exactly the way He needed her.  She has a job to do on this earth that only she can do.  He designed her specifically for that job.  He did so with us all.

That being said, do not underestimate the value that you hold as His creation–as His child.  Your soul is valuable and you need to treat it as such.  Neglecting your soul is unhealthy and it is doing you no good at all.  You are worth so much and your soul deserves to be nourished, cultivated, and cared for in the best of ways.

If we only feed our flesh while we are here on this earth, we are not doing what is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which we were created.  We are neglecting the true us and only doing ourselves harm.  1 Cor. 3:9 says, “We are God’s fellow workers.”  vs. 16 reminds us that we are “the temple of God.”  We were built for so much more than what is on this earth.

How can we remind ourselves and focus on our true purpose?  We simply must not neglect our souls.  Our spiritual disciplines are for more than just to say, “I read my Bible” or “Yes.  I pray.”  They are to nurture our souls.  Our souls are too important for us to put spiritual disciplines off for another time or another day.

We have to feed on the Word to truly ingest the healthy, life-giving words of Christ.  Our Lord gave us His words.  We have access to the King of Kings at all times through His word.  We have access to the Lord of Lords at any moment through prayer, as we boldly approach His throne.  When we pray we are allowing Him to breathe life into bodies and souls; into every cell of our being.

The healthiest thing we need to focus on today is feeding on the Bread of Life.  Invest in yourself today…you are SO worth it!

Bon appetit,

jamie