In times of despair, we forget that we are heirs. In times of favor, we forget why we are heirs.
When life gets hard, or we’re not performing like the Christian we feel we should be, we see ourselves at the beggar’s table, hoping for a few scraps, thinking we deserve only that much. We tend to shy away from bold prayer, and we either replace it with a good dose of negative self-talk, or we find ourselves whispering those begging types of prayers that leave us feeling small, not loved or embraced like we actually are.
And instead of holding onto these two things…
- Identity – firmly established in the finished work of Christ
- Humility – harnessed strength fueled by the Spirit, empowered by His love
…we pick up the virus of spiritual passivity and let it suck the life right out of us.
When we fall short of what we know God deserves from us, we tend to lose our fight for faith because we don’t think we have a right to stand in battle. Read this again:
In times of despair, we forget that we’re heirs.
May you remember today that Jesus’ overwhelming victory on the cross gave you a place at the table of grace. You get to be there because Jesus unequivocally defeated sin, death, inferiority, insecurity, imperfection, isolation, and rejection, just to name a few. He doesn’t yank you from your seat at the table when you occasionally lose a battle or forget who you are.
In Christ Jesus, you’ve been made brand-new, through and through; you’re an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ, a royal priest, clothed in righteousness, and dearly beloved. You’re anointed and invited to enter the Most Holy of Holies to meet with the star-breathing God who put the galaxies in place. And though He spends His days and hours overseeing the affairs of men, He’s never too busy for you. When you approach the throne of grace, you can be assured of God’s glad welcome and loving embrace. Why? Because you’re one of His own. Always. Forever. No matter what. Isn’t that just spectacular? Leaves me speechless.
Read this statement one more time: In times of despair, we forget that we’re heirs. In times of favor, we forget why we’re heirs. When we walk through times of favor, we must remember that when life is good, it’s because God is good. Every good gift comes from His hand. The enemy would love nothing more than to have us shift our weight onto our works, so he can yank the rug out from under us. Our safest place is at the table of grace — a place we’ve not earned but that Christ has earned for us. Our only response can be one of humble, awe-inspired gratitude. We rest in the finished work of Christ, and we work from that place of divine privilege. We have nothing to prove and all of eternity to live for.
The more time you spend with Jesus, and the more time you spend pondering His great and personal love for you, the more you’ll find that His love heals your soul, makes you whole, and makes your heir status actually believable. What a gift He’s given us! And when you pray from that place, everything changes.
Watch Susie Larson this Thursday on LIFE TODAY. This is an excerpt from Your Powerful Prayers by Susie Larson. Copyright ©2016 by Susie Larson. Published by Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Used by permission.
