Purified

Hebrews 9:11-28

As I reflect on the incredible truth of this passage, my best response is a prayer like this. I hope you'll join in this prayer with me.

Father God,

Today I come before you, and I thank you for Jesus' sacrifice for me and all people. I thank you that Jesus did for us what we could not do through our good intentions, our religious ceremonies and traditions, or our best efforts.

I confess that I, like the Israelites in the past, have failed to keep your law. I fail to love your precepts. And even when I come to worship, my praise and thanks and offerings are incomplete. You have asked for all of me, for my everything, but I bring you just pieces. And so I thank you that Jesus came and gave you everything, that he gave his will, his life, his excellence, and his glory so that you would be honored and that we would be saved.

I am reminded of a song, Lord, that says,
" I wanna give You everything
But I've got nothing of my own at all
And if I give what I have not got
Will You fill me up and make me whole"
and I thank you that this passage in Hebrews reminds me that you have answered this cry of my heart. I have nothing of my own to offer you, but you have offered everything I need in Jesus, my perfect sacrifice, my perfect savior, my perfect High Priest. And not only have you offered your Son in my place and satisfied the debt I owe, but you go so far to make me complete and whole, like I could never be without you.

Thank you, Father, for not leaving us to our own devices, our own practices, our own attempts, our own ideas, for you know that there is a way that seems right to men and women, but in the end it leads to death. But your way is right, your way is perfect, and you have opened that way to us in Jesus! Thank you for the redemption and forgiveness that comes only through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus.

I thank you and I praise you, Father God, that, through Jesus' death and resurrection, once for all time, you have removed my shame, that you have made me whole, and that you have made me your child!

May you be glorified in my life, on earth, and in heaven for all time!
In the name of Jesus,
Amen.