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[31MAR2012] Lent 2012: Day 39—Reflection and Meditation

Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. Hearken to my cry for help, my King and my God, for I make my prayer to you.

♦ Psalms 5:1-2; 41:13

♦ Isaiah 1:16-18

♦ Galatians 6:7-8

♦ Matthew 10:32-33

Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, from age to age. Amen. Amen.

Matthew 10:³²“Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. ³³ But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.”

What is public acknowledgment? Is it a verbal confession or does it run much deeper than words? I think it is the latter of the two. While a verbal confession might be the beginning (or the end) of formal and public acknowledgment, the veracity and manifest evidence of that public acknowledgment is realized in the life of the confessor. The two cannot be separate. The life lived is the public acknowledgment whether there are words used or not.

“Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return.” -Thomas Kelly

This brings to bear more severity in the analysis of what it means to “deny Christ here on earth.” I can only serve up critical examination of my own life by asking if the life I live represents one who loves the Lord his God with all his heart, all his soul, all his strength, and all his mind. This is what I define as public acknowledgment or public denial. While I may fall short of perfecting my love on this earth, I do believe it is the pursuit of that perfection for which I will be judged. God alone knows what “giving my all” is. If I am giving less than my all, I fear that falls into the realm of denial on this earth.

Galatians 6:^7-8Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

I pray, Lord Jesus, be my guide and my grace, my merciful helper, who orders and sustains my ability to live openly before others in such a way that it never disowns or denies you. I desire, at all cost, to live a life worthy of the life you lived and did for me. My words may often seem empty and without meaning if there is not the substance of the life lived in faith that is evidenced in their wake. May the life I live bring glory to you now and for ever. Amen.