Worthy

By Pat

Many times through the years, I have prayed for God to help me to be more worthy. I would go before God in prayer feeling dirty, sinful. Ashamed. Not good enough. Not worthy. I would approach God almost embarrassed to present my requests to Him, certain He was disappointed in me for being so, well, unworthy.

But then God reminded me, gradually, that no matter what I might be feeling about myself, He sees me differently. He actually WANTS me to be His child, to feel special and loved, but not because of anything I did. I am worthy because the blood of Jesus has cleansed me and made me worthy. That's what did it! I need not feel ashamed, for the wonderful sacrifice Jesus made for me has freed me from the chains I surrounded myself with. I am free and I am loved. God wants me, warts and all.

I now approach the throne of God not timidly, but boldly, reminding myself when necessary that God found me, a sinner, worthy of Him, the Almighty, when He sent His son to pay the heavy price for my sins. I have a new awareness now, a greater and more profound gratitude in my heart. A humbleness I had not known when Satan was whispering lies into my head. I will never be perfect, but thanks to Jesus, I will always be worthy.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

Pat is a good friend who is passionate about her faith and her family. She works from home supporting a family business, and loves to read, write and garden when she can, and spends every spare moment with her grandkids.

Worthy

By Pat

As part of a recent morning devotion, I read Luke 7:1-10. This is the story about the Roman officer, called a centurion, who had a highly valued servant who was gravely ill. The centurion sent some elders to Jesus in hopes of Jesus healing the servant. Now, the theme of this particular story is usually that of the centurion's great faith by sending someone else to plead his case, and knowing that Jesus didn't have to come in person to provide healing. His faith was strong, and Jesus, impressed with his great faith, healed the servant. But when I read it, something else popped out at me.

Verse 4 tells us that the elders approached Jesus and earnestly pleaded, "This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue." They made sure Jesus knew the centurion was a good man, worthy of a "favor," a blessing. But don't we all think like that sometimes? Our mindset is sometimes that the more good works we perform, the more worthy we are to have our prayers answered our way, and favors granted. This, however, is not the case. Regardless of who or what we are and what we've done, God loves us equally and, by virtue of that great love and mercy, we are not required to keep tabs of our good deeds in order to receive a blessing from God. We don't need to remind God how good we are, or have others remind Him on our behalf, for He already knows our good and our bad and He treats us as we treat our children; equally and fairly.

"And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:6-9)

Pat is a good friend who is passionate about her faith and her family. She works from home supporting a family business, and loves to read, write and garden when she can, and spends every spare moment with her grandkids.

Bartimaeus Faith

By Pat

Do you ever allow yourself to feel unworthy of a touch from Jesus? Do you ever let the success, wealth, beauty and power of other people push you to the outskirts of the crowd, or permit society too remind you that you will never attain the status that will catapult you to lofty positions in life?

I think we have all done this in our lives, but those feelings are certainly not from God! That's the devil at work! In Mark 10:46-52, we encounter Bartimaeus, a blind beggar. As Jesus and His disciples and a large crowd were passing him by, he called out to Jesus to have mercy on him, and although he was scolded and told by the crowd to be quiet, he again called out "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

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