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Devotions

Loving Jesus Back

Gary Wilkerson

We cannot serve Jesus properly unless we know the depths of his love for us. As John writes, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19, ESV). We absolutely must receive the Lord’s love into our hearts — and it’s vital that we love him back.

This is beautifully illustrated for us in the story of a woman who showed up at a dinner Jesus was attending. “One of the Pharisees asked [Jesus] to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner … brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment” (Luke 7:36-38).

This is one of the most moving scenes in all of God’s Word. This “woman of the streets” had apparently crashed a dinner party hosted by an upstanding religious leader. It was an awkward moment, yet it had everything to do with John’s statement, “We love because he first loved us.”

“When the Pharisee who had invited [Jesus] saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.’ And Jesus answering said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ And he answered, ‘Say it, Teacher.’

“‘A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?’ Simon answered, ‘The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.’ And he said to him, ‘You have judged rightly’” (7:39-43).

Jesus’ point to Simon is clear. He explains, “I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven — for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little” (7:47).

This woman, emotionally ravaged by the life she led, felt God’s loving grace so powerfully that she had to love Jesus back. So, she initiated a sacrificial act of love — one that cost her a lot. She gladly paid the price not just in terms of the expensive ointment, but also her own dignity. The others at the table may have been embarrassed, but she is celebrated for the ages for her profound tenderness to the Savior.

The Christian's Indispensable Weapon

Nicky Cruz

The way to be powerful and effective is through fervent prayer. On the night when Jesus was wrestling in prayer with his mission to die on the cross, his disciples couldn’t keep their eyes open, much less support him in prayer. So Jesus said to them, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).

Prayer is a fundamental, indispensable weapon in our struggle against evil spiritual forces. In the book of James, we read that “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (5:16). A simple prayer can rally the forces of heaven to protect us from harm. Through prayer we gain the strength and knowledge we need to overcome temptation, discern God’s will, or receive anything else we need. God gives supernatural wisdom and power to those who trust him and he longs to do just that.

It's sad when believers see prayer as nothing more than the recitation of a wish list or a last-ditch call for help. So many people spend their prayer times begging God for things they want, asking him to fulfill their selfish desires. God doesn’t promise to answer those kinds of prayer. But when we pray according to his will, and for what we truly need in advancing the kingdom, he answers.

When we move in God’s will, we can depend on him to open doors for us — to make a path and guide us as we go along. We can feel his constant presence as we go about our daily tasks. He is there to help us through personal crises: financial attacks, sickness, so much more. We can always be assured that he will never leave us alone or forsake us.

Fervent prayer is a lifestyle of going to God with every need and concern and question, then learning to obey when we sense him answering. It is petitioning God for direction before we move and then going in the direction where we see him pointing. I am convinced that if we do that, if we live our lives in earnest wisdom and try to move in the direction he leads, then even if we go the wrong way from time to time, God will eventually make it right.

Nicky Cruz, internationally known evangelist and prolific author, turned to Jesus Christ from a life of violence and crime after meeting David Wilkerson in New York City in 1958. The story of his dramatic conversion was told first in The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson and then later in his own best-selling book Run, Baby, Run.

What Can Satisfy Your Soul?

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

In Psalm 27, David beseeches God in an intense urgent prayer. He pleads in verse 7, “Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.” His prayer is focused on one desire, one ambition, something that has become all consuming for him: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after” (27:4).

David is testifying, “I have one prayer, Lord, one request. It is my single most important goal in life, my constant prayer, the one thing I desire. And I will seek after it with all that’s within me. This one thing consumes me as my goal.”

What was this one thing that David desired above all else, the object he’d set his heart on obtaining? He tells us: “That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple” (27:4).

Make no mistake: David was no ascetic, shunning the outside world. He wasn’t a hermit, seeking to hide away in a lonely desert place. No, David was a passionate man of action. He was a great warrior, with huge throngs singing of his victories in battle. He was also passionate in his prayer and devotion, with a heart that yearned after God. And the Lord had blessed David with so many of the desires of his heart.

Indeed, David tasted everything a man could want in life. He had known riches and wealth, power and authority. He had received the respect, praises and adulation of men. God had given him Jerusalem as the capital for the kingdom and he was surrounded by devoted men who were willing to die for him.

Most of all, David was a worshiper. He was a praising man who gave thanks to God for all his blessings. He testified, “The Lord laid blessings on me daily.”

David was saying, in effect, “There is a way of living I seek now—a settled place in the Lord that my soul longs for. I want uninterrupted spiritual intimacy with my God.” This was what David meant when he prayed, “That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple” (27:4).

God’s Mercy Delays Judgment

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

In ancient Israel, the ark of the covenant represented the mercy of the Lord, a powerful truth that came to be embodied in Christ. We are to receive his mercy, trust in the saving blood of his mercy, and be saved eternally. So, you can ridicule the law, you can mock holiness, you can tear down everything that speaks of God. But when you mock or ridicule God’s mercy, judgment comes—and swiftly. If you trample on his blood of mercy, you face his awful wrath.

That’s exactly what happened to the Philistines when they stole the ark. Deadly destruction came down on them until they had to admit, “This isn’t just chance or happenstance. God’s hand is clearly against us.” Consider what happened when the ark was taken into the heathen temple of Dagon, to mock and challenge Israel’s God. In the middle of the night, the mercy seat on the ark became a rod of judgment. The next day, the idol Dagon was found fallen on its face before the ark, its head and hands cut off (see 1 Samuel 5:2-5).

Beloved, this is where America should be today. We should have been judged long ago. I say to all who mock and challenge the mercy of God: Go ahead, try all you want to bring Christ’s church under the power of secularism or agnosticism. But if you mock the mercy of Christ, God will cast all your power and authority to the ground. Jeremiah says, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not” (Lamentations 3:22). Yet when men make a mockery of that great mercy which is Christ, judgment is sure.

It is only the mercy of the Lord that delays judgment. And right now America is benefiting from that mercy. Incredibly, our country is in a race with the rest of the world to remove God and Christ from society. Yet the Lord will not be mocked; his mercies endure forever, and he loves this nation. I believe that is why he’s still pouring out blessings on us. His desire is that goodness will lead us to repentance (see Romans 2:4).

We are not to despair over the present condition in America. We grieve over the awful corruption, mockery and sin, but we have hope, knowing God is in full control. We know the mercies of God endure forever.

The Lord is There

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

To be a member of God’s true church, you must be known by the name of Jehovah Shammah—“The Lord is there” (Ezekiel 48:35). Others must be able to say of you, “It’s clear to me the Lord is with this person. Every time I see him, I sense the presence of Jesus. His life truly reflects the glory of God.”

If we’re honest, we have to admit we don’t sense the Lord’s sweet presence in each other very often. Why? Christians spend their time involved in good religious activities—prayer groups, Bible studies, outreach ministries—and that’s all very commendable. But many of these same Christians spend little if any time at all ministering to the Lord, in the secret closet of prayer.

The Lord’s presence simply can’t be faked. This is true whether it applies to an individual’s life or to a church body. When I speak of God’s presence, I’m not talking about some kind of spiritual aura that mystically surrounds a person or that comes down in a church service. Rather, I am talking about the result of a simple but powerful walk of faith. Whether that’s manifested in a Christian’s life or in an entire congregation, it causes people to take note. They tell themselves, “This person has been with Jesus,” or “This congregation truly believes what they preach.”

It takes much more than a righteous pastor to produce a Jehovah Shammah church. It takes a righteous, shut-in people of God. If a stranger comes out of a church service and says, “I felt the presence of Jesus there,” you can be sure it wasn’t just because of the preaching or worship. It was because a righteous congregation had entered God’s house, and the Lord’s glory was abiding in their midst.