Am I Displaying Jesus Christ?

 

When you were growing up you had role models and people you looked up to.  You would say I want to be like so-n-so when I grow up.  Even now as an adult you may admire someone due to the qualities that person possess.  You may have even compared yourself to others, saying I am better off than he or she.  Come on tell the truth.  We have all compared ourselves to someone in some point in our lives.  The only one we should compare ourselves to, is Jesus.  Why? Because Jesus is the only standard for which we are to measure and examine ourselves. 

I noticed in my prayers I have been praying that you Jesus would lead me, guide me, and direct my steps according to Your Word, so I may do Your Will in what I do, say and think.  I have been praying that you Jesus would burn off the ways of this world from me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness.  I pray that You Jesus will decrease and crucify this flesh of mine.  How can I display your characteristics Jesus?  The Word tells me in Matthew 16:24-25, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.   For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”  So I have to deny myself.  I can’t be friends with this world.  The Word tells me in James 4:4, “Adulterers and adulteresses!  Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?  Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”  I don’t want to be your enemy Dear Lord, so please continue to strip me from the ways of this world and continue to shape me and mold me into the likeness of Your Son Jesus.  My heart’s desire is to please You My Heavenly Father, so when people look at me they don’t see me, they see You Jesus.  I have to take up my cross and turn toward Your Word daily.  In James 1:19-25, You tell me I have to be “swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” (Vs. 19-20) I have to lay aside all “filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” (v. 21)  This is how You Jesus will continually cleanse me by the Holy Spirit taking over my damaged soul to make me clean inside each day.  Lord God, You tell me I have to be a “doer of the word, and not a hearer only, deceiving [myself].  For if I am like a hearer of the word and not a doer, I am like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.” (Vs. 22-24)  Your word has penetrated my heart and convicted me to act out the Word that has been implanted in me to do Your will and not my own.  You Jesus said, “But [I] who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, [I] will be blessed in what [I] do.” (v.25)  In Romans 12:1-2, Lord Jesus, You tell me I can display your character by presenting my body as a living sacrifice.  You said, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is [my] reasonable service.  (v. 1) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of [my] mind, that [I] may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (v. 2) The only way for me to display Your character Jesus is to submit and surrender myself daily in Your Word and in prayer.  With so many distractions in this world, You Lord God tell me in James 4: 7-8 to “therefore submit to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from [me].  Draw near to God and He will draw near to [me].  Cleanse [my] hands, [for I am a sinner]; and purify [my] heart, [for I use to be] double-minded.”  I will not compromise the work Lord Jesus, You are doing in me, to me, and through me.  I am Your workmanship.  Have Your Way with me Lord Jesus!  You are my Role Model Jesus.  ♫ I wanna be, I wanna be, like Jesus. ♫