In All Your Ways Acknowledge Him

John 19:1-30
v. 19, 21-22:  Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross.  It was written, “JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.”  So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’; but that He said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’”  Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”

Impression:  How easy it is to accede that Jesus is King without actually acknowledging Jesus is King.  Pilate did.  The chief priests did (they “slipped” and misread the sign—“THE King,” in their own words).  They could speak it with their lips, or write it on a sign, or put Jesus’ name before others, but they refused to bow the knee to His authority and lordship.

Application:  Again, again, again—how often I fail to acknowledge God in my daily life.  It is easy to quote Proverbs 3:5-6, but to acknowledge God with obedience in the decisions of life is a very different thing.  Most of the time I am simply unaware that I am making a choice and I fail to consider its eternal effects.  Some of the time I am aware that I am making a choice and follow my own natural tendencies.  A few times each day I realize I am about to make a choice that requires a different response, but I choose my own way anyway.  “Oh wretched man that I am!  Who will set me free from the body of this death?”

Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin (Rom. 7:24-25).

Ugh.

Lord, please empower the servitude of my mind to overcome the servitude of my flesh.  Fill my mind with the goodness of Your Word—of Your Spirit, of Your Person—that I might overcome the pull and guerilla tactics of my sinful self.  Help me to hate my selfish tendencies with the passion they deserve.  Help me to fight myself relentlessly, diligently, whole-heartedly. Help me to give myself wholly to Your ways, Your power, and Your work.