Prayer
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this simple prayer based on Psalm 19:14.
As I ponder Your Word,
may the meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.
Reading
Jesus makes a very simple point in this brief parable. God desires His children to live His way in the world. He longs for us to stay in step with His will and to live in obedience to Him at all times. But, truth be told, He would far rather have us follow a path of refusing Him, rebelling against Him and then repenting, returning to Him and actively walking in His ways (which was the way followed by the repentant tax collectors and prostitutes of Jesus’ day), than for us to pay lip service to Him, express all the right intentions, but never follow through with any active obedience. The latter is a pointless exercise.
In Christian terms, saying ‘Yes’ to Jesus with our lips is worthless if we do not convert that ‘Yes’ into active obedience. Even publicly acknowledging Jesus as Lord and King with our lips but never converting that confession into a life of active obedience in His Kingdom is worthless. ‘Jesus is my King’ was never meant to be an empty confession. It was meant to be a way of life. One’s confession that ‘Jesus is my King’ is only actually a truthful statement when it is evidenced by a way of life.
What truly matters is not that we say the right words, but that we live for the Lord. The Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day were good at talking a righteous talk, but not at walking a righteous walk. Jesus confronted them with the truth that repentant sinners would enter the kingdom before them.
Just in case we forget, allow me to reemphasize that none of this means we are saved by our good works. What it means is that when we have true saving faith in Jesus Christ, that faith will motivate and move us to walking in His ways in daily obedience and service. One’s faith is proved by one’s actions!
As the apostle James wrote in James 2:17-18:
Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn one or more of these declarations over and over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will confess Him with my lips.
- I will follow Him with my life.
Holy Spirit, please deepen my faith in Jesus as Lord; and please inspire and empower my obedience to Jesus as Lord. Amen.
Dave's Diary 
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