Beloved Believer

Chapter 3

Church Walk

Follow:

To follow Jesus means to go where He went for the reasons He went. To

do what He did and does for the purposes He does them. He came to die to
glorify the Father. He loved indiscriminately, He never gave thought to his
own needs, He showed us the Father through Himself, and He spoke only the
truth without wavering. As we study Jesus’ life on this earth we see such
beautiful simplicity in His obedience and submission to the will of the Father.
Yet, because He is God, He is deeper than we can ever understand. It is easy
to look at Jesus’ ways and make a list of “ought to’s". We are more readily
moved to works than to real submission to God. The only action I am inclined
to encourage you to is the act of laying out your whole self to God.
Don’t you want to walk with Jesus? Don’t you want to walk like Jesus
and get as close to Him as possible in this life on earth? What nonsense to
think we are just here to wait it out; taking cover until He comes to claim us.
What we wait for is far better than anything we could have here but what we
can have of Jesus here is far more than what we have now.
Why not just stay put? Why do we always have to be going after God?
Why can’t we just be happy with what we have, practice what we know and
be good people? Because we are never still. We are not made to just sit and
when we think we are just still in life, we are deceived. We are always after
something. If we are not actively seeking God, we are seeking to be satisfied
with the world. There is no place in between where we just do nothing. Even
waiting for God is actively seeking Him.

Matthew 9:9
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting
at the tax booth, and he said to him “follow me.” And he rose and
followed him.

Jesus calls us to follow, not to only in initially receive Him. Obviously

we can’t follow Him unless we have received Him. We can’t really receive Him
if we aren’t willing to follow Him though, can we? Knowing Jesus doesn’t end
with the knowledge of salvation. He calls us to go after Him, be close to Him,
and experience Him by His Spirit. The reality that we are saved forever and
that He will never leave us is supposed to help us as we are MOVING. He told
Matthew to follow Him and Matthew got up and followed Jesus. Matthew
didn’t ask where or how long or to what end, he just followed. If Jesus had
told him what he was in for, would he have gone? I don’t know, I suppose He
would since it was God’s providence that he would do so. I do know that the
ones who stopped to think about it and ask questions didn’t get to go. They
were concerned about the kinds of things any responsible person should be
concerned about. They were concerned about taking care of business and
family. They didn’t get to go with Jesus.

John 10:27-28
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them
eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one is able to snatch them out
of my hand.”

Don’t just walk after Jesus, run! Many of us were set free from
addictions, sexual immorality, and many other sicknesses of the soul. The
things that were used to hold us captive kept us running blindly after them to
our own detriment. Consider the energy you used to spend on the pursuit of
things that were destroying your soul. Seek Jesus with at least that same
amount of energy. In all of life, even the life of those saved of God, there is a
call to temperance in all earthly pleasures. There are legitimate pleasures
that will be harmful if we don’t balance the time spent on them. One can golf
too much, drink too much, eat too much, work too much, clean too much, etc.
There is no activity that should not be limited, except the activity of pursuing
Jesus. There is never a “too much” of seeking to know Him better, praying to
Him, rejoicing in Him, doing His work. There is no limit of what we can enjoy
of Jesus. He will always be more than we imagined. What glorious freedom
we have to go all out after Jesus while the world ties itself down to self
imposed balances. God has not set us free so that we would only stop going
after those things that defile His glory and harm us; He has set us free to go
after Him. Our addictions and troubles were not just thrown out but traded in
for something far better. Whatever you have experienced of the presence of
God up to this point of your life, ask for more. Keep asking for more until the
day eternity stops.

Believe:

To not want to follow Jesus is to embrace unbelief. If we believe what

He says, we would not give a second look at the world. We would not stay
immersed in the pleasures of the world and we would stop chasing after the
satisfaction of our flesh and we would live radically different lives. Have you
ever read the statements of Jesus about himself and us and the Father and
thought “if I really believed that…”? If you haven’t read the truths that Jesus
puts forth and challenged yourself with it, I encourage you to do so.
I’m pretty sure you will see a different kind of life in your mind’s eye. I’m
pretty sure you will want to believe Him more. And I hope it will cause you,
as it causes me, to repent and ask God to remove the obstacles in your heart
to unbelief. Are we actually going to lose our lives by trying to save them?
Can and will He really give us life abundantly? What does an “abundant” life
look like, anyway? We won’t really know unless we will “come and see”. Take
a step in His direction in whatever God has placed on your heart. Just take
one step and see the faithfulness of God become brilliant in all of your life.
He is patient and kind and will honor your desire when you take the smallest
step by faith. Take one step. Close your ears to the world and your own
understanding; close your eyes to all that seems to be in the way and step
out believing that He will be there for the next move.
If our desire is to follow Jesus, then won’t we go where He says and do
what He says? I am not talking about “doing religion”. I am not talking about
a few good ideas we have taken from the Bible. I am talking about desiring
to be so close to Jesus that you will do ANYTHING and go ANYWHERE just to
get closer to Him. I am talking about asking God specifically what we should
do with our resources, our time, our/His everything.

No one will follow a person they don’t trust.

Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would
draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards
those who seek him.

We are saved by faith in Jesus. We live by faith, not sight. We are called to
follow in faith. Faith in who Jesus is and in all He has done and says He will
do. Faith can make a person feel joyful and free and yet it is not a mere
feeling. There may be times when your gut hurts with anxiety and your head
hurts with trying to figure it all out. Faith is not always the absence of these
feelings but a deliberate choice to believe that God will make a way. He will
make a way for you to get to Him and get in His peace. He will provide a way
for you to see His sufficiency. Stomachs and heads don’t rule the universe,
God does. So let them ache away as you continue to pour out all your
troubles to God. Present all your requests to Him; who else wants them? Lift
all your desires to God, even those you aren’t sure are correct desires and
trust that He is big enough and loving enough to sort it all out for you.
We are so into ourselves and our personality issues, our past hurts and
our human weaknesses that we defy God by believing in them instead of
Him. We all need compassion from God and each other. We are weak; some
of us have been badly bruised and wounded. God’s word stands true for each
and every child in Christ! His word and promises are not truer for some and
less true for others. We must choose to believe He is trustworthy. When our
lives prove that we don’t believe God, we must repent and He will help us to
see His way by his Spirit. But to say, “I can’t believe because of what has
happened in the past.” is to be in total defiance of God. When Jesus healed
the eyes of the blind man (John 9:1-7) He told him “Go, wash in the pool of
Siloam”. The man didn’t say “but, I can’t because I can’t see because I’m
blind”. He went and he washed and he came back seeing. Doesn’t that
seem like the most sensible thing in the world? This man who knew so much
less of Jesus than we who have his Spirit know of him made the choice to
walk in belief. Amazing!

1 Peter 1:3-4
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and
godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own
glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and
very great promises, so that through them you may become
partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption
that is in the world because of sinful desire.

God’s word plainly tells us that we have all we need to follow Jesus. Do
you believe it? Without believing it you will never take one step. When you
stop believing it you stop walking with Jesus and start walking with yourself. I
am not referring to a salvation lost but of a fellowship hindered. When God
graciously shows us that we do not believe Him, it is an occasion for
repentance, not an occasion for self pity. It is likely that every believer will
doubt God’s promises at some point. Praise God for His loving,
compassionate way with us! He condescends to help us see the obvious. He
welcomes our cries for help. Let’s do cry out when we fear and can’t move
rather than sit obstinately like spoiled children. How wonderful it is to
experience God’s love in the personal and intimate ways He brings it! Let’s
not mistake that to mean that He revolves around us. When God moves our
hearts to belief and we willingly follow Him there should be parts of our
“selves” left behind. He’s not coming to put Humpty Dumpty back together.
His help is for us to toss off the “old man” and follow to the “unknown” with
known promises held close.

Precious Lord Jesus, You have called your children, your brethren, to yourself.
All that you call come to you. Lord you command that we follow you: that we
take up our crosses and go after you. We are weak in our desire for you Lord.
Please open our eyes to the foolishness of our hearts when we run after
anything or anyone other than you. Have mercy on us, gracious and
beautiful Lord. Open our hearts and make us able to believe your every
word. Your glory will be known and displayed throughout all the earth; let us
take life-changing joy in that fact.

Jesus invites us to walk with Him and that is what we are to be about.
Jesus offers us so much more than we can dream of. Do we believe Him? Do
you believe Him? Do you believe if you asked God to show you how you can
be closer to Jesus, that He would answer? Don’t embrace unbelief.
It seems pretty simple, although painful; we won’t follow Jesus if we
don’t believe Him. If we can’t believe Him for this life, how can we believe
Him for the next life? We claim to have a personal relationship with a man
who died over two thousand years ago. We claim that this man is God that
he was born to a virgin and that he died a perfect person. We claim that his
death was deliberate and to pay for the sins of people, most of which were
not yet born. We claim that this man/God came back to life and that his spirit
lives in us today. We also claim that he will come back to earth to get us so
that we can live with him in heaven forever. To believe that there is a God
who could and would do all that is to believe a lot. To believe Jesus is going to
come from heaven (again) and take us to heaven but not believe He will put
dinner on the table tomorrow, or give us the power to obey Him, seems a bit
ridiculous. Can we believe He will save us for eternity without believing that
what He has for us in this life is better than what we can come up with? Or is
it just easier to believe in eternal salvation because it is so far away (or so we
may think). Isn’t that a little like believing in Santa?
Romans 8:32
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how
will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

The Glory of God:

If we are to be those who follow Jesus at any cost, we should be clear

what His motive and objective is. It is Jesus’ heart to glorify God the Father in
completely yielding to His desires and plans. We will follow only if we will
carry in our hearts this same desire and on our crosses our very selves.

John 12:27-28, 30
“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father save me
from this hour’” But for this purpose I have come to this hour.
Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have
glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

“This voice has come for your sake, not mine.”

Jesus death was for The Father to glorify His name. Jesus being one
with the Father could have no other view. So Jesus calls us to be one with
Him and to have no other view.

As long as our view includes our own ideas and self centered motives, we will
not be walking with Jesus. It is our nature to make loving God and glorifying
Him a business, a to-do list, an agenda that can be managed in our small
minds. We include things in our agendas that are nice, positive and that
make us look good. We typically have our minds on what other will say of
us, either positive or negative. May we all take a moment here to ball up our
“self-esteem” and throw it in the trash? God is not concerned one iota of
yours or mine high views of ourselves or in the power that we may feel from
them. If, by God’s grace, we are able to think about what it means to glorify
God, let us start with requests, not solutions. Let us humbly ask God to make
us what He would have us be and do. Let us ask Him to purge us of ourselves
and give us understanding of His nature.

Lord God, how often we labor for our own glory. How deadly the disease of
our nature. We thank you God, that you will be true to your word and have
your way in us. Father, raise our eyes to you.

When Jesus walked on this earth he had the Father’s Glory in mind in
all He did. God loves us, that is to His glory, not ours. Jesus loved and loves
us. Jesus’ love is to God’s glory, not ours. He does not love us because we
are cute or because we are just plain pitiful. He loves us because He loves
us. God is love and so He loves us. God has His Glory in mind at all times.
Our Lord and master has called us to follow Him. We have been called to
walk with Him and to walk like Him. All that God does and doesn’t do is for
His glory. He does not meet our needs simply because we would die if he
didn’t. Many people will perish. They will perish to the glory of God.
Everything that God does is for His glory. He meets our needs because it
meets His word to do so. He said it, He will do it. The glory of God is the aim
of God.

Isaiah 48:9, 11
“For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I
restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off.”

“For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name
be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.”

All of creation will and does glorify God. Your purpose – not your job,
your purpose is to glorify God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
Our nature fights against this important and basic truth at all times. The “old
man” within us never ceases to attempt to take the throne of God. The “old
man” is the son of Satan and does what his father does. We have been set
free from the rule of Satan but that old nature is still loyal and so long as we
are in these bodies we are stuck with the fight of the old nature. We are at
war each and every moment. Let us remember not only that we are at war
but who we are at war with. We are at war mainly with ourselves. As long as
we think we are basically O.K. in our nature and that we are able to glorify
God in anything we say or do apart from the working of the Holy Spirit– we
are following a deception of Satan and allowing our old nature to rule us.
Only God can glorify God. Only He knows how to glorify himself and only He
is worthy to glorify himself. If we were able to glorify God from our own
nature, we would not need the Spirit of God to live in us to accomplish that.
The Holy Spirit glorifies God in us and through us. Praise God for His
awesome promises! But let us be clear about who the glory goes to and who
it comes from. It goes to God and it comes from God.

The absurdity of man bringing God glory from his man nature only
emphasizes God’s greatness in His accomplishing the impossible by causing
us to be born of His Spirit so we can be a part of glorifying Him. It is God’s
great mercy and kindness that gives us a place in His glory. Salvation is
impossible without God supplying it. Glorifying God is impossible without God
supplying His Spirit to live in us full time to accomplish it. If it seems like I
keep banging the same old drum, it’s because I am. It is imperative that we
get off our high horses and stop dictating to God how to shape up His image.
We have to change our thinking in the area that there is anything we add to
God and His Glory. He has no needs. We are desperate. This is said simply
enough. But if we are honest with ourselves, each one of us will admit that
this is a daily struggle and often keeps us from closer fellowship with Jesus.
We hate being desperate; it does not appeal to our pride. But as long as we
will not be desperate, we will not have Jesus.
We must have our eye on God’s glory; on His desires, and on who He
is. Let’s not kid ourselves about our tendency to live for ourselves. We mete
out morsels of good will and congratulate ourselves on glorifying God. The
measure of “goodness” of the deed has nothing to do with God’s glory. If it is
not of His Spirit, by his power, with His love it is useless and will hold no joy
for us or power to work in another’s heart.

1 Cor 13:3
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but
have not love, I gain nothing.

The Glory of man:

Glory: renown, a brilliant asset, the state of being acclaimed.

All of our renown or repute worth having is Jesus Christ himself. As we

are brought into unity with the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, we are
entered into by God and know God as our glory. We are His glory because He
is our everything. We are His beloved. Through our wretchedness, His
beauty and kindness is revealed to the world. We bring no glory to God or
man but since Christ is our glory we are appointed to pursue glory in Him and
to reveal His glory to one another and the dying world. There is great glory to
be had – it is God Himself in Jesus!

Col. 3:4
When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with
him in glory.

1 Peter 5:1,4
So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of
the sufferings of Christ, as well as a PARTAKER in the glory that is
going to be revealed:

And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading
crown of glory.

Eph 2:6
And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus,

Our glory is found in Jesus Christ alone. It cannot be had and must not
be sought in ourselves, from our peers or on this earth. We have been given
a place of honor and glory in Christ. Having absolutely nothing of value, we
glory in His glory.

We are saved by His righteousness; we rejoice in His joy and we live in His life
giving work for us on the cross. The more we know Jesus, the more we know
glory. He is our acclaim, our boast, our pride. If we want to glorify God we
must be diligent in our work. This is our work: BE NOTHING and BELIEVE.
Be nothing. Believe that God is everything. Believe He will make us all
that He says He will. Believe He will and can do everything in us and through
us and for us and to us that He says. Believe that He provides everything for
us to be able to believe Him. All of our interests for ourselves must be laid
down for God to change, toss out or set on fire. God glorifies God. Only he
knows how or has the ability and perfection to glorify Himself. We have not
been instructed to do pretty things and then give God the credit, as if paying
our dues. We are instructed to trust and die.
Does God not love us?! His love is beyond words and we are not able
to fully understand or explain His love for us. We must get past the thinking
that being loved means having our personalities embraced and having
someone put up with our selfish, arrogant ways. That may be an attempt at
human love but it is not real love as defined by God. I often hear comments
about how God loves us in spite of ourselves. As if He somehow overlooks
our faithless deeds because He is overtaken by His emotion for us. He isn’t
just “putting up” with us and loving us anyway. He isn’t bound to half
hearted love because He has the power to change us by living through us in
Jesus. He calls us to put to death our selves so that He can give us His very
Self in Jesus Christ. He gives us the power and desire to die, to be nothing.
He works patiently, not absent mindedly. To the glory of His name, He is
working every moment of every day establishing His life in us and abolishing
our fleshly ways. What an amazing love that its! God loves us so much; He
is actually working the life of His Son in us. He is working this very moment.
Our “selves” must go, Jesus must rule. That is a kind of love that is so much
higher than we can wrap our human minds around. Let’s stop trying to make
it small and “understandable” and bow in gratitude and wonder before our
maker and savior.

2 Cor. 3:18
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are
being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to
another.

Thank you, mighty God, for making us partakers of your glory in Christ Jesus.
Work in your people an extraordinary faith in your love and your words and all
your ways. We seek your help to heal our wounds and make us able to walk
against the wind of this world.

Suffering:

I can’t get past the reality that all the keys to walking with Jesus have
to do with suffering. You just get to feel really good about what you’re
reading in the Bible and then there it is, “if you suffer with Him” (Rom 8:16)

Acts 9:4b
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

2 Cor. 1:5
For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ
we share abundantly in comfort too.
 The suffering is Christ’s suffering. He suffers, we share it with Him. He
has already suffered death and arose and is seated at the right hand of the
throne of God. Yet when the New Testament writers speak of suffering they
are saying we share in Christ’s suffering. He calls us to go with Him where He
will suffer. It is Jesus the world hates. When we are where He is working and
sharing in the work in obedience to Him, we will share in His suffering.
I make this distinction of “suffering with Jesus” as opposed to what
many usually say, “suffering for Jesus” because we don’t suffer for Jesus;
Jesus suffered for us. We may suffer for the sake of His name which is the
same as suffering with Him. When we are hated and abused because of our
love for and identification with Jesus, we suffer with Him. He was already
hated, we join Him in it. I am also speaking of “suffering with Jesus” and not
of suffering afflictions and trials. We will suffer from afflictions and trials
whether or not we are with Jesus. Being alive on the face of the earth
guarantees the suffering of some affliction or trial. God, in His great mercy,
will bring us affliction and trial to teach us to hold tightly to Jesus. In
whatever way we suffer, we always win with Our Great God; however, I am
referring to suffering because of our affiliation with Jesus here.
Suffering is a mysterious subject to me. I say mysterious because I
haven’t suffered very much with Jesus. This has caused me to examine my
motives and what I have been prone to set my affections on. I am grateful
beyond words that God can draw our hearts to the point of desiring the
fellowship of suffering with Jesus. There is no thing or person more worthy of
knowing than Jesus. I am confident that as God increases the desire to be
with His Son, He increases the desire even for the most undesirable things
and situations that we may be called to.

Phil 3:10
That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may
share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

We can’t truly know Jesus apart from the fellowship that comes in
sharing his sufferings. How much of Him do we want? I for one want all I can
have!
The Devil wants us to see all the possibilities and be afraid. But when
we look into the face of Jesus, we can say “rash” things like, “I want to go
too!” Like a child, we can say, “I want to go with you, I want to suffer too!”
There is a high privilege in suffering with Jesus. The Devil wants us to count
the cost of following Jesus in such a way that we rationalize it all out until we
have talked ourselves out of whatever God has called us to do. Or worse yet,
we don’t’ even hear His call to us. Jesus is not hiding anything from us. He
plainly speaks of what it means to go after Him. He says we need to deny
ourselves and pick up our crosses. We are to lay down our lives and take up
the way of suffering, the way of death. Who can know what that would look
like in life? I only know that Jesus is there. Is it enough to just be willing to
suffer? Scripture tells us plainly that we will suffer if we are truly following
Jesus. Following Jesus certainly means there is a willingness to suffer with
Him because one wants to go where He goes. That will mean suffering.

Romans 8:16
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children
of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs
with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also
be glorified with him.

The writer does not say, “provided we are willing to suffer with him”.
He says, “provided we suffer with him.” There is an implication here and all
over the Bible that suffering is a by-product and a proof of our fellowship with
Jesus. Proof of what and to whom? Certainly not proof to God, He knows
whom He is saving. It is proof to us and to those watching of the grace we
are given in Christ Jesus. We want to weigh it out. Discover our options. We
might say, although not openly, “How much of Jesus can I have without
sharing in His suffering?” Or “If I can be saved without trouble to me, that’s
the way I want to go.” Don’t be so sure. God does not operate within our
thinking and we can’t attain to His thinking. It would be better to just do as
He says, don’t you agree?
Many today are saying, “God doesn’t really want me to suffer. He
loves me. Why else would give me such a great life?” Maybe this idea of a
“great life” is not really from God. Just maybe it is so easy because they
aren’t really walking with Jesus. When people see them – they see them. If
they saw Christ in them, they would hate them because they hate Him. If the
world doesn’t hate us it’s because they don’t see Jesus in and with us. Where
is He then? Well, maybe he’s suffering somewhere and others are enjoying a
special and privileged fellowship with Him while we hang back and enjoy the
“good life”, attributing it all to God, of course.

John 15:19
“If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but
because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,
therefore the world hates you.”

Should we not thank God for His gifts? Of course we should. God’s
gift to us is Jesus. He Himself is our gift. He never ceases to amaze and thrill
us. He never wears out or needs replacing. He can never fully be explored.
Let all be a means to more of Jesus. Thank God for His gifts. Look around at
all you enjoy and ask God to use it to show you more of His Son. The more of
Jesus we see, the more of Him we will want. The closer we are to Jesus the
more others will see Him when they look at us. Isn’t that the point? The
more we act like Jesus, the more distant we grow from the world. The world
will hate us because we aren’t like them anymore. The more they hate us,
the closer we will draw to Him. Isn’t that also the point? And those whom
God has appointed to hear will hear and follow Jesus. It is a matter of wanting
Jesus more than anything. We need to be realistic about how the world sees
our Savior and choose to be with him instead of them. No one wants a
beating. But those who claim to follow Jesus need to value God’s grace in it
as a means of getting closer to Him. There is no way around it. We must
stop this unbiblical teaching of following God’s “rules” to get the best of this
world. All that we can see around us is going to burn up. Often we temper
the idea of suffering with our common sense. Certainly we aren’t to lose our
jobs over Jesus! God surely doesn’t want me to ruin a good relationship by
being too “fanatic” about Him, does He? If we are really in love with Jesus we
may or may not lose a job or a relationship but there should be no question of
who we would choose if the occasion arises.

Are you following?

The salvation we have received is not simply an insurance policy for

the future. As if we have our little prayer and personal dedication to Jesus all
tucked away in an envelope somewhere. Walking with Jesus is daily and
constant. You can’t arrive at the proper destination if you aren’t following the
one who knows the way.

So many say they follow Jesus but their daily lives are full of angst over
things, position, personal feelings and opinions. Can we look to Jesus and say
“I’ll just meet you there?” or “Go ahead, and I’ll catch up when I’m done
here?” As silly as that sounds I fear many of us are doing just that when we
determine that our worldly affairs are more important than our heavenly
affairs. Pick up your cross today. Follow Jesus now. There must be a
beginning of setting down the concerns of self and this life. Let us repent of
our slowness to follow and tell Jesus we will come at this moment.
Children of God, let us check our allegiance and confess every
betrayal to our heavenly Father. Jesus yearns for us to be with Him and He
has made the way plain and paved it with his blood. It seems we cannot ask
for more than what He has already done for us but He tells us to ask, and
keep on asking. It can seem like the impossible; to be able to believe past
this world. But God has already done the impossible in giving us His Spirit.
The Holy Spirit will guide us to all truth. We love Jesus because he loved us
first. Here is reason to stop doubting your ability to love Him. It is a fact. If
you belong to Jesus, you love Him because he loved you first. He will not lose
one, nor will he turn his back on the weak. Do not stay away from His healing
words or presence. Plead with Him to show His power in you for the sake of
His mighty name.

Tender Jesus, you know each heart that belongs to you. You know every
weakness and have more than enough to fill each one with your power and
love. Help us to see the world for what it is and to see you for who you are.
Help us to break away from unbelief. Encourage the weakest and the
strongest of hearts so we can press on toward you.