Living the Life of a Disciple of Jesus

Matthew 5:40

And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

The instruction is simple enough.  It just does not make sense to us.  It is not natural for us to bear an injury for the sake of peace.  In the flesh, it is difficult for us to meet this standard.  

As we become disciples of Jesus Christ, we learn to commit our concerns to the Lord.  We learn to avoid the disputes that our flesh would demand.  We come to recognize through the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit that our flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God.  Only our spirit will find its resting place with the Father.  And it will be our spirit that will find supernatural peace and comfort on this earth when we follow the principles that Our Lord teaches.

Being a disciple of Jesus Christ cannot be carried out in the flesh.  God does not start with our natural ability and build on it.  He only asks that we rely on His grace and submit to the presence and the supernatural work of the One that dwells within us.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the all-sufficient grace that You

provide that allows us to live as disciples of Your Son, Jesus.  We humbly acknowledge, Father, that You do not see us as who we are today or who we have been.  We rejoice in knowing that You see us as who we are in Christ.  We pray, Lord Jesus, that You will walk by our side and lead us to the way of peace.  We ask that You show us how to draw the world to You through our living testimony as Your disciples.   

The Prayers of the Righteous

Mark 11:25

And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

There is but one Cross - one atonement for our sins.  Our time on earth is to be spent reconciling ourselves to the Cross.  Nothing we do has value in the eyes of the Lord unless it has been put in proper order in our lives.  The Heavenly Father must be the first consideration of every conscious moments of our lives.  If there is anything or any person the comes before the Father, He will not hear our prayers.

When we come before the Father in prayer with anger and uncharitable feelings for another, He cannot grant us spiritual power.  We have supplanted His place as The First by coming to Him with our transgressions mixed in with our prayer offering.  The transgressions must be reconciled or we have no hope of receiving a favorable answer from God.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your promise to hear our prayers when we are righteous.  We praise the name of Our Savior, Jesus Christ, who made it possible for us to stand before You as righteous men and women.  We rejoice in knowing that our sins are forgiven because of the sacrifice of Your Son.  We pray for the wisdom and strength to forgive others as You have forgiven us.  May we humble ourselves and kneel at the Cross daily so that we may receive the grace that we need to remain righteous. 

On the Way to Jerusalem

Luke 18:31

And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.

Jesus was perfectly attuned to the work that He was called to do.  He spent His entire time on earth completely focused on doing the will of His Father.  He did not care if He preached to one or to ten thousand.  He was not seeking recognition for the good work that He was doing in the sense that we would seek recognition for ourselves.  

Jesus was only concerned with pleasing the Father.  Nothing could discourage Our Lord on His way to Jerusalem to meet His fate at Calvary.  No amount of suffering could deter Him.  No distraction could lead Him to hurry to the next task.  The only task that Jesus was concerned with was the one that the Father put before Him.  

It is important that we tune into the voice of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that we can learn to align our personal plans with the plans that God has for our lives.   We must find our way to our Jerusalem.  We must let nothing take us off our path.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing for our eternal resting place in the New Jerusalem.  We praise Our Savior, Jesus, for clearing our path to get there.  We ask for the Holy Spirit to direct us to our path and prepare us for the journey.  We pray that we may be strengthened so that we may be steadfast in doing only the things that are pleasing to You, Father.  May all the glory be Yours.

My Lord, My Master and My King

John 13:13

You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.

In every other religion in the world, the final goal is to have done enough to satisfy a god who provides eternal rewards for those who fulfill the demands.  The followers of these gods live under a task master who has nothing to offer to those who bow before him.

For followers of Jesus Christ, the servitude to the Master is totally different.  The Master has taken care of everything that is necessary for the servant to be worthy of eternal reward with Almighty God.  The Master promises to perfect His strength in the weaknesses of every follower so that they are healed of their wounds, redeemed from their transgressions and made holy and worthy to stand before The Father for all eternity.

Sitting under this Teacher and Lord, Jesus Christ, means that we have someone who knows us better than ourselves, who is closer to us than our friends and family, who understands the deepest desires of our hearts and fulfills them.  Through this Master, the Son of God, we have the security that our eternal destination is settled.  There is no need to question whether we have done enough.  In the words of Jesus himself, "It is finished."

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You that everything that needed to done for us to meet You in heaven for all eternity was finished on the Cross.  We bless the name of Jesus, Our Master and Our King, who completed it all on our behalf.  We pray, Lord, that we may sit humbly at the feet of Our Master and surrender to the way, the truth and the life that is in Him.  May we become vessels of His perfect love and forgiveness.  May we become instruments of His good work.