Unusual Servants — Jim Cymbala

God has many different servants that work for him, which we don't often acknowledge. And I want to talk to you about some servants, some guides, some ushers that he's wanting to use in our life, has used in our life.

God's Hidden Servants and the Mystery of Christ

And it leads to the ultimate secret, a mystery, that the Bible says no one in the Old Testament and the Jewish economy ever saw or understood. It only was revealed in the New Testament time, and I don't know how many of us understand it.

I'm not really sure. We're probing, and we're trying to understand it better. But let's get back to this idea of servants. You know, one of God's servants in the physical realm is pain. I had a wrist problem for the last few weeks, and I was seeing a doctor about it, and we were just talking, because the pain was very severe, and she said, you know, without pain we would destroy ourselves, because pain tells us something's wrong.

Pain says go to a doctor, change your diet, lose weight, something's off. And if there was no pain, imagine if there was no pain and a child put their hand in a flame, burned their hand off. It's the pain that makes them withdraw it.

So pain is used by God in the physical realm to help us. What do people say? Listen to your body. Listen to your body. What is it telling you? Because God put this system in there. So now let's talk about this mystery and how God uses his secret servants to get us to understand and take advantage and experience the mystery.

Mystery in the Old Testament is not like Agatha Christie mystery or Sherlock Holmes or one of those mysteries. Mystery in the Bible is something that is veiled but can only be revealed as spiritual truth.

It can only be revealed by revelation, by God opening the eyes of our heart so we see it, and we go, I never knew that, but it was there all the time. That's what a mystery is. Haven't you ever read the Bible and read the same passage over and you suddenly see something you never saw before?

How many have ever had that happen? Like wow, what was that about? I never saw that. Well, this is the ultimate mystery, the Bible says, that was hidden, as I said, for ages and now has been revealed.

And then how God uses servants to get us to it. Let's look in Colossians. The Son, Jesus, is the image of the invisible God. You want to know what God looks like? Just study Jesus. You don't have to go roaming all around the Old Testament trying to figure out who he is.

You want to know what God is, how he feels, what he loves, what breaks his heart? Just look at Jesus. The firstborn over all creation, for in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or power, this is very deep water here, or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him.

Listen, God created everything, but he did it through the Son, through Jesus. This is way before Mary and Bethlehem. In eternity past, everything that was created was created through Jesus and for Jesus.

Everything is for Jesus. He will receive all the glory for it and everything will serve him in the end. He is before all things and in him all things hold together and he is the head of the body, which is the church.

He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead so that in everything he might have supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, Jesus. All of God's fullness was in Jesus and through him, through Jesus, to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood like Passover, Passover blood, except this was the blood of the ultimate Lamb of God, the Son of God, shed on the cross.

Suffering, Ministry, and the Mystery of Christ in Us

Now this is another mysterious passage. Now I rejoice in what I'm suffering for you and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, which is the church.

Now that's very strange because Christ, when he died on the cross, he suffered and he paid the final price for all of our sins. He said it is finished. So the law was satisfied by the suffering of Jesus and the blood that was shed.

Now Paul says, no, and I serve the church and all the trials I go through and the beatings that I go through as I spread the gospel and help build the church and comfort the church, all these afflictions, I got scars on my body, he says in another place.

In all of that, I fill up like there's more to do, not legally to get us saved, but in God's mysterious plan, if we suffer with him, we'll reign with him. There's things you go through as you live for Jesus and work for Jesus.

You get rejected, you get in trouble, you get turned on by your family, but all of it is part of this beautiful plan that God has for his church. And we learn, I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness, the mystery that's been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord's people.

To them, God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery. What is that mystery? Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is the one we proclaim. We don't proclaim a church.

We don't proclaim a denomination. We don't proclaim only the law. He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ, in union with Christ, resting in Christ.

To this end, I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. I want you to know how hard I've been contending for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not met me personally.

My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love so that they, here of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

In him is everything. All power, all wisdom, all salvation, all knowledge, all peace, all joy, all comfort, all encouragement, all direction. Everything is in Christ. I am the way, the truth, and the life.

I am the bread of life. I am the living water, he said. It's all in Christ, and that's the mystery. Now, to a lot of us, we have limited view of Christ, like the Old Testament Jews. They were waiting for Messiah.

They pictured him on a horse, a white horse, kicked the Romans out so we can be free and have an independent nation. They were not ready for the way Christ came. He was interested in something much deeper than independence.

And to us, a lot of it is this. Christ is God's son. God so loved the world. He died on the cross. He rose from the dead. He's back up in heaven, and now one day he's going to come again, and we're going to make the best of it until then, and hang on.

That's a very limited understanding, I'm afraid, of what God has planned. Everything is in Christ. Everything is for Christ. Everything came through Christ. He's bigger than any of us can imagine. God's sovereign plan for the universe is to bring everything to finalization in Christ.

Every knee will bow to Christ. Every tongue will confess Christ, even if they have to say it in hell. Everyone will acknowledge that Jesus is God's son, that he is life, that he is salvation, that he has every good thing God wants for us.

It only comes in one package, Jesus. If anything God is going to do for you, it has to come through Jesus. He has no other way of conveying anything to us. It's through Jesus. Now, notice the odd juxtaposition of words here, because it says, here's the mystery.

Not only that everything is in Christ. Not only that he is the summation of what we call history at the end. Not only is he the one that will be glorified in heaven, but that he is Christ in us. No, wait a minute.

How could he be in us if he's in heaven? If he's seated at the right hand of the Father and we're waiting for him to come again, how could he be in us? Through the power of the Holy Spirit, who is called the Spirit of Jesus, Christ lives in us.

Think of this. The son of the living God lives inside of every believer. Not in my hand, in my heart, in my spirit. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with the Lord. In your heart right now, if you're a believer born again, you have Christ, the son of God living in you through the Holy Spirit.

The glorified Christ is in heaven. We wait for him, for his return. But here's the mystery that no one understood. That God would so lower himself in love to meet our needs that he would not only have Christ die for us, but he would then put Christ in us to live for us.

Listen, many don't go further than Christ on the cross. He died for me. But no, here's the mystery. Not only died, shed his blood, but now through the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, he now lives in us.

And all our resources, all our answers, everything is waiting for us right there in Christ who lives in us. So let's back up and see about these servants and ushers that God uses. To get people to trust Christ for salvation, God had several servants that he used to just bring us that way.

The Law as a Guide to Christ

First, he used the law. The law was the Ten Commandments and other commands where God says, I am holy, here's how you should live. Do this, don't do that. But we all break the law. And once you break it, you can't unbreak it.

You do the crime, you do the time. Then you find out that when you promise not to break it again, you break it twice more. And then the law makes you finally close your mouth, get rid of all your self-righteousness.

If you're here today with any self-righteousness, you don't understand here what God is saying to all of us. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is nobody righteous, not even one.

If there was one, he never would have sent his son to get massacred on a cross. He would have said, handle it yourself. No, all have sinned. But we don't know that until the law does its work. The law haunts us down, haunts us, conscience, condemnation.

And the law leaves us helpless. And the more we try, the more we fail. And all God does is use that. The Bible says it's like a tutor who tutors someone until they get old enough. He's like a servant who guides us and says, you tired?

You're going to give up? You see how hopeless it is on your own? Fine, good. I'm bringing you to Jesus because Jesus is waiting for you. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

That's why he wept over Jerusalem. He said Jerusalem before he was crucified outside the city. He said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how many times I would have gathered you and I called to you, but you wouldn't come.

If you would have come, I would have saved you from all the stuff that's now going to come upon you as a people and as a city. So the whole purpose of the law and the prophets was to get people to come to Jesus, not to God.

Don't say God. God means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Muslims have a God. Everyone has a God. We're talking Jesus here. He is the mystery. He is the secret. So come to Jesus.

The Prophets and John the Baptist Point to Jesus

And those who the law worked on, like the Apostle Paul and others on the day of Pentecost, when the gospel went out in Acts 2, they preached, they were stung in their heart, and they say, what must we do to be saved?

And Peter said, don't join the church. Don't become a member of anything. Come to Jesus. Believe in Jesus. Be baptized. In the name of Jesus. Trust in Jesus. Love Jesus. Rest in Jesus. Praise Jesus. Walk with Jesus.

Listen to Jesus. He is your salvation. Then John the Baptist came right immediately before Jesus. He was the one who prepared the way. Remember? And what was his message? Don't look at me. One's coming after me.

He's the one. He's the one who will change you. I baptize you in water. That's a physical act. But when he comes, he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire. He'll burn out that old chunk and give you a new power, a new love, a new life, a new joy, a new peace.

Don't look at me. I'm not the one. He's coming. When he comes, trust him. Love him. Walk with him. Believe in him. When Jesus was here on earth and he saw the state of man always trying to go away from Jesus and the leaders of religion, unfortunately, and of the Roman empire away from Jesus, get away from Jesus.

Jesus said, when I am lifted up on the cross, I will draw all men to me. When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw men to me. Why does he want to draw men? When you see my love and my sacrifice for you, I'll use that as another messenger, another usher to bring you to me.

You've been hard. You've been stiff. But when you see how much I love you, it's going to soften you. It's going to draw you to me. And once you come to me, I'll wrap my arms around you and I'll be everything you ever dreamed and beyond that.

I'll give you salvation. I'll forgive your sin. I'll wash away. Your conscience will be clean. You'll be able to sleep at night. And this is the way God uses messengers and ushers to try to bring us to Jesus.

So before we become Christians, and maybe there's someone here, you're not a born-again Christian. You go to church, maybe you're observing the meeting here today, but you're not a believer. God has all kinds of messengers, hasn't he, that he has sent you?

Oh, yes, he has. Don't tell me no. I say yes. How about a funeral? That's not a message to you? You're going to die. I'm going to die. Then what? Then what are you going to do with your money? All your investments, all the stuff you got planned.

You could die in a split second. You might not see tomorrow. I'm not being melodramatic, right? Isn't that a message to you? Like, are you ready to face God? What would it profit if you gained the whole world?

Isn't that a message for you? Isn't that one of God's servants for all of us? I think about it every time I do a funeral or go to a funeral, or you hear about an earthquake. You think any of those people woke up in Indonesia saying, this is the last day I'm going to live?

Of course not. That's a message for us. Come to Jesus. Then you'll be ready to die. Remember what Jesus said? The one who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Life doesn't end when you have Jesus.

Come on. Let's say amen to that. Life doesn't end then. Or how about your conscience? How about a guilty conscience? Or how about condemnation? How about the fear of being caught in living a double life?

Those are all messages. Those are all servants of Jesus. It's like the pain I had in my wrist. Those are all things that God uses to say, I don't want you to live like that. Come to Jesus. You won't have the guilt.

You won't have the fear. You won't have the oops, I could get caught. You'll live in the light. You'll walk in the light. Come to Jesus. He'll take care of all that stuff for you. So those are all. Now, you can reject the messengers.

You can reject the servants. No, no, no. Or you can say, no, God's showing his love toward me. But past simple, that's not a comfortable feeling. Neither is pain, but it saves your life. God uses these messengers for all of us to bring us to the one that is going to wrap his arms around us and love on us and show us things we never even imagined.

Christ as the Believer's Life

So now, let's say we come to Christ. We are now born again Christians. But we don't have a full understanding of what Christianity is supposed to be. A lot of us have grown up under legalism. So we just try hard.

Try hard to live a good life. But that has nothing to do with Christianity. A lot of us have come to the place where we know he died for me, but we don't understand that he is our life. Christ in me. The Bible says Christ, who is our life.

What do you mean? I have my life. No, Jim Simbala is dead now. When Christ died on the cross, we were supposed to say, bye-bye, Jim Simbala. All you've ever caused me is trouble. I have a new life now.

Christ is my life. He that hath the Son hath life. Not just eternal life that we're going to live forever. It's not an extent of life, a length of life. It's a quality of life. It's his thoughts, his peace, his joy, his humility, his calmness, his wisdom in me living out so that you can say with Paul, I live, but nevertheless, it's not me who lives.

Christ lives in me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me from where? From inside. All right, so let me explain it. Because I said we're going to deep water here. We get saved, and we're Christians.

And then we start to go out on our own, and we don't rest in letting him be our life. We have this idea that we're going to help him, that we're going to perform for him, even in a good way. You know, I'm going to do something today for God on my own.

And God says, no, don't go that way. If you could have done something good for me, you would have done it a long time ago. Christ is your life. But once you step away from resting in him, loving, abiding in him, just being weak so he can be strong, what happens?

You begin to walk. Other things begin to happen. The world stimulates the flesh. And now you realize, wow, I'm a Christian, but some old stuff from my past life is cooking in the kitchen. It's stirring up.

Que pasa? What's going on here? I thought I'm a Christian. How many know exactly what I'm talking about here, right? No, I want to be like Christ. I read how kind he is. Why am I gossiping? Why have this unforgiveness and bitterness?

Why am I doing stuff that I know is dirty and wrong? But I love Jesus. So then we repent, and then we do it again. We repent, we do it again. So now God, because he loves us, says, I don't want you living like that.

I want you to realize that you have no life. I am your life. I've only paid for your sins. I'm your life. Every day you can supernaturally draw from me. I am your life. Why would I live inside of you to just look around?

No, I live inside of you to be your life. I want you to live out of your heart, your spirit, where I live. I want you to rest in me. Praise me. Trust me. Look to me. Fall in my arms constantly. Keep rebooting all day long.

Coming back to me, your heart, where I live in your heart. We're wandering all around, some of us. Some do it for days, hours, weeks, months. Then they come back. I meet people like that all the time.

I know about that from my own life. You counsel people. I've been away from the Lord. I got saved, but I've been away for two years from the Lord. What are they saying? Not that they're unsaved. They're saved.

But they got so away from any fellowship and letting Jesus live through them that they're out there doing the craziest things. And hurting themselves. Let me close. Jesus has these servants to bring us back.

Trouble as a Messenger That Brings Us Back to Jesus

Remember, everything has to come back to Jesus because he's everything. He's our life. He is the beginning, the end. Everything is from him, for him, through him. He is it. So what he uses is like, hmm, I'm going to use one of my best servants, trouble.

Let the bottom fall out on you. I can do that with a flick. Jesus just uses one little pinky. Everything's topsy-turvy, turmoil, disappointment, tears, hurt. Someone turns on you. Someone sticks a knife in your back emotionally, right?

And now you're reminded, I can't cope. I can't deal. And the servant that's quiet, invisible, says to you, yeah, good, take my arm. I'm going to tell you where to go with your trouble. I'm going to bring you where you need to go with your pain and what they did to you, what they said, and the pressure and the fear.

Come on, just come with me. Oh, here he is. Here's Jesus. Get back to him. Listen, he's never troubled. He's never anxious. When he is the source of my life, I have peace. Not like the world gives, I have peace that passes, what?

All understanding. I have joy. But that's his peace, his joy. The moment I find myself discombobulated, I know, oh, that's Jim Cymbala. God is using something now to remind me, get back to your life. Reboot.

Reboot. If you have to reboot 50 times a day, reboot. That's what the Bible means by walking in the spirit or pray without ceasing. Reboot. Come back. Just say, Jesus, I'm coming back to my heart where you are.

I'm trusting you. Be my life. This stuff is too much for me, but I know you used it to bring me back to you. Because Paul says in 2 Corinthians, I came to a place, he said, where I lost all hope. I was in so much trouble, I lost all hope.

He said, but God used that. So I wouldn't trust in myself anymore. But I would trust in God who raises the dead and makes something out of nothing. Come on, let's say amen. Give you another one. Temptation.

Temptation and the Believer's Dependence on Christ

You feel it coming on you. You know all about that. Thought patterns that the enemy has used. The minute they come, don't you get it? This is what the Bible means where it says what Satan means for evil, God works for good.

Satan comes to tempt us. God never tempts us. But when Satan comes and tempts us, God uses it as a messenger. See, it's too big for you. What are you going to do now? Don't fight it. No, come on, come on, come back, come to me.

I can handle that too. Temptation. I beat him three times in the wilderness. I'll beat him again for you right now. In my strength, I will give you. But you got to rest. You got to rest in me. Let me be your purity.

Let me be your strength. Do not try to be strong. Do not try to do anything. I am your life. I am your life. I not only died for you, I live for you. How about this? Guilt after you sin. Condemnation.

Devil comes in, condemns you. You can't even sleep at night. What did I do that for? What did I say that for? What did I look at that for? And then God uses it as a messenger. Come on, come on, stop it.

There's no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus. You don't have to live out there. Come on, come on, come on. Use the thing that the devil's trying to use. I'm going to use it for good. I'm going to bring you right back to Jesus.

He is your righteousness. Stop trying to get a good track record. He is your righteousness. You can't be more saved tomorrow than you are today. Just praise him for that. Come on, let's put our hands together.

Just thank him. Last ones, I close. Any feeling of anxiety, any feeling of trouble, any feeling of anxiety, any feeling of troubledness, any fear, any distraughtness, the moment you feel it, you know, nope, I'm not in the spirit.

That's not Jesus living through me because nothing makes him distraught. Nothing makes him nervous. Nothing keeps him up at night. My goodness, he was sleeping in the middle of a storm. They thought they would die.

They had to wake him up. That's how much it bothered him. The moment you feel your peace lost, now you know you're living in you. That's you. That's me. But Jesus can never lose his peace. You got to go back to your source.

He handles everything for us. These are all messengers. These are all servants of God. The moment you feel sideways, you know, whoops, I got to get back to him. Maybe I've only taken a step away, but I got to go back.

And all you have to do is from your heart say, Jesus, I belong to you, Jesus. Be my life. You died for me. Now you promise to live for me. Be my life. When Jesus comes, the tempter's power is broken. When Jesus comes, the shackles fall off.

But you got to rest in Jesus. Trust in Jesus. Just think what we Christians put up with and fight on our own strength. And we put up with it. Do you think God wants us to live like that? Look at me, everyone.

How in the world, if he loves us so much and gave us his son, would he want us to live all discombobulated? Instead of letting those servants and messengers lead us like an usher, you know, you go to Radio City Music Hall, you go to a theater on Broadway, you give your tickets to the usher and he looks, oh, okay, K, 11 and 12.

Come on, walk with me, brother. I'll get you to K. 11 and 12, that's where you and your wife can sit. I'm the usher for him. That's what God does with these servants. He ushers us back where we belong.

And it happens every day to us. Happens every day. Reboot. Reboot. Your phone ever go off on you? Your computer? Reboot. Reboot. Say, wait, this is not God's plan for me. I'm anxiety ridden. I'm nervous.

Jesus isn't nervous. Is Jesus ever nervous? Wait a minute, I'm feeling bitterness towards someone. Whoops, that's Jim Simbel again. Gotta get away from him. Going back to my life. Going back to my source.

Gonna rest in Jesus. How many want to live out of Christ, living inside of you? Let me just tell you a personal thing real quick. I told you about my pain here, which was a good reminder to me. I felt a little bit this morning coming to church.

It's much better. God's helped me. But on Tuesday, we had an unusual service. We were worshiping. The presence of God became very, very, very, very, very, very strong. They came up and prayed for me. I waited.

I felt something was supposed to happen. And then a lady came and fell on the steps over here. And I said, okay, let's take her outside. We'll help you, ma 'am. We'll pray. She got near those doors. And then the most satanic, screaming, tormented crying started that you could ever imagine.

Stunned everyone in here. She was in the lobby and they were trying to help her, but you could have heard it a mile away. We took authority over the devil. We cast them out of the building, out of the lobby, out of her.

She calmed down. The Lord helped her. So I said to the people, something I've learned, that when Jesus makes his presence real, like he has today in this meeting, many times when his presence is most palpable and real, the most demonic things can react to that presence of Jesus, right?

It's like when he got off the boat and he came onto a certain piece of land, suddenly all hell broke loose. Everything was going crazy. Why? Because Jesus was there. So I'm telling the people, don't be alarmed or nervous ever when the Lord comes.

And I'm just in the middle of my sentence. And suddenly a scream comes from the last row, right where you are, sir. A scream, the last row here from the front. A scream, platinum blonde, attractive, 30 something, you're all Canadian visiting here for the first time.

Let's out this screaming, going crazy, pandemonium in this building. I was so proud of the members of the church that were sitting around her. They jumped up out of their seats. They started, you leave her, Satan.

You get out of her now. Her eyes are rolling like the omen. She's rigid. Her body is sideways on the chair back there. I make my way off the platform because all heaven and hell were breaking loose at the same time.

It was amazing. I go back into the back there and I see her just horrible. And I joined with the others. And we took authority over Satan. And God released her from the power of that thing. And she looked at me, wait, wait, wait.

And she looked at me and said, it's heavy. It's so heavy on me. It's so heavy. And I said, okay. And then the Lord said, and I said, now you're good. You're good. Look at me. You're good now. Start praising Jesus.

Take his name on your lips. She started praising Jesus, started crying. Finally, after all this is going on, everyone's praising God, yelling. I don't know what was going on here. Then I said, okay, she needs to take some water and air.

So take her out. She's released now. She's free. So she went out in the lobby. And I came back up here, spoke from Romans 4. We had the end of the meeting. And then the people came forward. We were praying.

And I said, wait a minute. Where's that young woman that we prayed for? And they said, no, she's over here somewhere. So we brought her up on the platform. And there she stood. And I found out her name.

She's from Ontario, Canada. Never been here before. She lifted up her hand. She started praising Jesus with us. She started crying. It was beautiful. But you know what? I was going home at night. I was talking to my wife.

A Testimony of Deliverance and the Peace of Jesus

When I walked off of here, she's screaming. Like everyone's going nuts, nuts. I'm going out there, encountered her, confronted her, spoke to what that evil darkness in her. Did it, came back. And as I was going home, I realized that God, by his grace, had me so in Jesus that my pulse didn't go up a half of a millimeter.

No adrenaline, nothing. I had total authority and peace that Jesus gave me. Listen, I went back. And look, I've encountered that a lot in my life. And usually there's like, oh, God, help me. What do I do here?

Help me, Lord. And nothing. It was like I was going to the corner to get some coffee. Just walk, speak, come back. Praise God. What else is new? Jesus is wonderful. Come on. Let's give him all the praise, all the honor.

Prayer to Rest in Christ and Respond to God's Messengers

Close your eyes. If God has been using some messengers, some servants in your life, and Satan is trying to use those to get you totally out of sorts, lose your peace, your joy, go off, try to live on your own, give into the flesh.

If you love Jesus and you see what God is really trying to do here in your life, would you just stand up right where you are? Just stand up and say, Pastor, that was from me. That is from me. I am coming to Jesus and resting in him.

He will overcome the pain, the hurt, the abuse I've gotten. That has hurt me. And now I'm living wounded. Jesus doesn't live wounded. He lives with joy and peace through me. Whatever is trying to hold you back, rob you of whatever, just stand up right where you are.

Lift up your hand if you're standing. Lift it up right now. Father God, in the name of Jesus, we come to you. We're going to rest in you today. You are my strength. You are my joy. You are my peace. God, teach us from this passage not to live out of ourselves, but to live out of you.

Let you be our source. Every moment of every day. God, I'm not safe a half a step away from you. I need you, God. We all need you, Lord. So God, thank you for using even the attacks of the devil to bring us back closer to you so that we learn more and more the mystery, the depths of the mystery, that all the secrets of wisdom and knowledge and peace and joy are in Christ.

And you use the circumstances of life to keep ushering us deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper into Jesus. Lord, thank you for your word to us today that the mystery, the mystery hidden through all the ages has now been revealed.

Not only Christ on the cross, not only his blood, not only his resurrection, but Christ in me, the hope of glory. That you not only died for us, you want to be our very life every single day for us. Provoking Jesus thoughts, Jesus emotions, Jesus hungers, Jesus desires.

Lord, whenever you send any of your servants and messengers to get our attention, when we feel ourselves getting into negativity and discombobulation and temptation and guilt or whatever it is, Lord, help us to remember what we learned today.

Those are messengers to draw us back to you. We can't fix it ourself. Cannot. Can't change ourselves. Can a leopard change his spots? But with you, nothing is impossible. When Jesus comes, the tempter's power is broken.

When Jesus comes, everything changes. Help us to have Jesus days, Jesus nights. When our mind gets assaulted in the middle of the night, help us to run to Jesus right there in our bed, run with our heart, run with our soul, run with our spirits right to Jesus and say, Jesus, this is not of you.