Journal Entry ~ 03/29/18

9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!" - Mark 11:9-10

Jesus didn’t like to draw attention to his ministry. In fact, after he would perform a miracle, he often told people to keep it to themselves.  He didn’t want people to share with others because He knows our hearts. He knows we are self focused and want things to go our way, so discovering He can perform miracles would cause many of us to start making a list of what we need fixed in our lives. Imagine how people would chase after Him to heal this or fix that if word got out that He could perform miracles? Jesus didn’t want people to follow him for what he did, He wanted people to follow Him for who He was. 

But our selfish hearts are so often focused on what we need to make things easier, than they are on the person of Jesus. Just look at our prayers - we spend far more time asking Jesus to do something for us than we do praising Him for His holy name.  The people that came to greet Jesus as He walked in to Jerusalem that day on a colt were no different. The outward appearance of their worship is one we should imitate, but the inward focus of their heart is dangerous, so it does us good to spend time looking at them. 

Their worship was loud and enthusiastic as ours should be, and everyone came out to greet the King. They stopped whatever they were doing, overcome by the desire to welcome Jesus. Is that where our hearts are this week?  Have we dropped everything in order to worship the coming King? They were singing and quoting scripture - their hands were raised in adoration, waving palm branches to honor their King. They laid down their cloaks as a way to symbolize submission to the One who saves. Have we abandoned all fear of what others may think, and checked to be sure our hearts are in humble submission to the King of Kings? 

Outwardly, they seemed to be doing everything right, but inwardly, their hearts seem to be worshipping the King for all the wrong reasons. We cannot know for sure what a person’s inner thought and desires are, but given what we know about the Jewish people at the time and the fact that they turned on Jesus in the course of a week, we can take away a few lessons. The Jewish we’re living under the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire at the time, and we know they were looking for a King to save them. They wanted a warrior King who would defeat the Romans. They had a plan for how Jesus would save them, and it was from their own desire that they were worshipping Him as king. When they realized Jesus didn’t come to fulfill their plan, they turned on Him in hatred and wanted to see Him killed. Their plan for His life was more important to them than the reason He came. 

It’s so important for us to check our heart’s desire all the time. When we bring a request to the Lord, we must always ask it in humble submission to His plan. If our plan or our desire is more important to us than our humble worship of the King, the enemy can get a foothold in our lives and turn us against Him. Far too often, we see Christians grow angry with the Lord for not answering a prayer the way they wanted to prayer answered, and they turn their back on Him. This isn’t so very different from what happened In Jerusalem all those years ago. We must always trust that His plan for salvation is far superior to anything we may have planned. He is the King of Kings. 


Press on, ladies ~ you are loved 💗

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