2020 – 21 Days of Prayer & Fasting
Dead Works

“For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Hebrews 9:13-14 (ESV)

We, as humans, have this tendency to put so much weight in what we do to try to build ourselves up–whether that manifests in social media, being a workaholic, or as lighthearted as spending hours getting ready in the morning. Sometimes we live in the state of trying to build our own personal kingdoms, not realizing that doing this is like grabbing for smoke. The second you capture some, it’s gone. This life is fleeting, short, limited. The Creator of the Universe chose to put YOU here, right where you are, in 2020. Why ever you are here, the fact of the matter is, that you are. And Paul reminds us here that if the sacrifices of the Old Testament were sufficient for purifying, how much more is Christ’s blood sufficient for purifying, and not just of sins, but purifying from the dead works that we’re drawn to–of building our own kingdoms, or doing things that ultimately have little importance.

Now, I’m not suggesting we ought to quit our jobs and stop getting ready in the morning. I am, however, suggesting that we are called to serve the living God as our top and only priority. Instead of ranking, first priority: God. Second Priority: Family. Third priority: Work, or church, or whatever. Let’s instead make God the only priority IN our families, IN our marriages, IN our jobs. They are not competing entities. When our conscious is cleared from all dead works, then we are able to live all out for Christ. We can’t keep serving two masters.

I will end with this same scripture in the Message translation: “If that animal blood and the other rituals of purification were effective in cleaning up certain matters of our religion and behavior, think how much more the blood of Christ cleans up our whole lives, inside and out. Through the Spirit, Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God.”

I pray that throughout our days, weeks, years, and lives that we would be able to completely live all out for Jesus. Pursuing Him and His ways, not as our main, but our ONLY priority, and knowing that health will follow in all areas when we run after Him. I pray that we would realize that we serve the living God WITH all, or we don’t serve Him AT all. Let us build His kingdom and not our own.