PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
1 Corinthians 13:4
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
CONSIDER THIS
Have you ever considered the patience of Jesus? Knowing his story was leading to a cross, he still patiently served his disciples and ministered to those who came to him. We never perceive that Jesus was in a rush, or biding his time to get to something else.
Have you ever considered the kindness of Jesus? Continually asked to do things, be things . . . to make things happen, we see him responding with clarity and grace even in circumstances where the needs seem to be overwhelming.
Then we see Jesus moving in contentment; we don’t hear envy or comparison with others in his words. Neither does he boast or exhibit arrogance.
With today’s section of 1 Corinthians 13:4–13, let’s repeat our exercise of inserting the name of Jesus in the place of love first, and then inserting our own names second as a declaration of our union with Jesus:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind. Jesus does not envy, Jesus does not boast, Jesus is not proud.
[Insert your name] is patient, [Insert your name] is kind. [Insert your name] does not envy, [insert your name] does not boast, [insert your name] is not proud.
Because the Spirit of Jesus lives in you and me (Phil. 1:19; Gal. 4:6), we can be patient. When we say, “I am an impatient person,” we are contradicting our union with Christ. We may be well-meaning and may have grown up believing that self-effacing comments are a sign of humility, but we are not agreeing with God when we make them. Christ in you is patient, therefore he is transforming you into a patient person.
We can be kind. We can put a gentle hand toward the hearts of those who come across our path (in person, via text, or on social media). A feeling of outrage over what someone posts is no excuse for losing our cool and dehumanizing them with our language. “In your anger do not sin” (Eph. 4:26) we are told. Christ in you is kind, therefore he is transforming you into a kind person.
We can avoid envy, boasting, and pride. Envy tells us the lie that someone has it better than us. Who has it better than a beloved child of God? No one has it better. Boasting is what we do when we are insecure and attempt to heighten our reputation in the presence of another. Who has a higher reputation than Christ in us, and what child of God is desperate for someone to affirm us when Jesus himself affirms us as his own? And as for pride, Paul will only boast in Jesus, and in his own weaknesses (1 Cor. 1:31; 2 Cor. 12:9). A beautiful humility is the consistent posture of Jesus’s disciples in the world.
In union with Jesus, you and I can become the most loving people on planet Earth. We can do so not because we have it all together or because we have no weaknesses with which we struggle. We can become the most loving people on planet Earth because Jesus—the most loving person who ever lived and ever will—dwells in us.
THE PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I am in you and you are in me. There is a fear I have of waiting, and my union with you is conquering that fear in me even now as I pray. I want to become patient, and by this union with you, I will. I want to become more kind, and by this union with you, I will. I want to leave envy, arrogance, and pride behind me, and by this union with you, I will. In Christ Jesus, I pray, amen.
THE QUESTIONS
Do you see yourself as naturally patient, naturally kind, naturally content, naturally elevating of others, naturally humble? If you answered yes on any one of these, wonderful! What area is Christ in you working on right now to make you more mature in other areas?
For the Awakening,
Dan Wilt
P.S. Sow with Us This Year
The other day I got an email from a reader. He asked, “I thought Seedbed was a business. Why are you asking people to give?” Truth be told, Seedbed is not a business. Seedbed has a business, but Seedbed is a mission. We are on a mission from God to sow for a great awakening. So much of what we do we do at no charge to anyone. The Wake-Up Call is one of those initiatives. It’s free and yet it is expensive. That’s why we annually invite you to pray about sponsoring the Wake-Up Call with a financial gift. The buy-in for sponsoring a day is $300. Half a day is $150. Quarter day is $75. Any gift of any size is welcomed and appreciated. You can give here. I’ll be back with Season 2 of Acts beginning May 20. Grab your Acts Wake-Up Call Companion Journal while supplies last. And now for those who are listening, how about we start warming up for Acts by singing a hymn together?
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2 Responses
Many believers like myself must receive grace sufficient to unlearn some of the doctrines that we were taught while growing up. One such doctrine was that even after receiving Christ in faith, that we would remain saints and sinners simultaneously. My experience seems to bear this out. While I can look back upon my past life, and see definite progress towards total sanctification, honestly I’ve still got a long way to go. I truly want to believe that it is possible this side of the resurrection, because Scripture seems to say so. I don’t believe this to be be a minor issue.
An inner heart-connection with Christ must be continually cultivated. Because our human nature isn’t comfortable with that kind of intimacy with the living Jesus, it tries to cut off (quench) the flow of the flow of the Spirit’s living water from within us. Our human nature doesn’t want to be constantly challenged by the call of Christ. It prefers comfort and complacency.
To live in union with Christ and flourish with the fruit and the gifts of God’s Spirit, His followers must do what He said: “Deny themselves, take up their Cross, and follow Me.” Unfortunately, that radical call to daily follow and obey the risen Jesus has been turned into a Sunday morning religious ceremony.
If Christians will take the religious lid off of the Holy Spirit, all Heaven will break loose! Instead of trying to force fit Jesus into a sermon, a liturgy, or a church service, perhaps we should try listening directly to Him and then do what He says.
God created human emotions. Christ-followers should be the most enthusiastic people on earth, overflowing with positive emotions. ignited by the presence of “Christ in you the hope of glory.” “Quench not the Spirit.” “Stir up the gift that is in you.” “Rejoice in the Lord always.”