Angels #5

"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
"Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
"For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."

Mark 8:35-38, www.solascriptura.com


Jesus, You finish this admonition with the warning that if any of us are ashamed of You and Your words, You will be ashamed of us, and then You tell us the holy angels will be present with You when You return to us.

Jesus, we not only do not want to be ashamed, but we want to be courageous in sharing Your love with others. It is not easy to witness to some people. They just do not want to hear it but in such cases, help us to show people how Your love for us spills over and that we can be loving, even when our instincts are otherwise.

You teach us that if we gain all the possessions, notoriety and admiration of the world and yet lose our soul, we will count the gains as nothing. There is nothing we can gain in exchange for our soul that makes any sense. It seems that clinging to things, as though they can redeem us, is a recipe for disaster.

Teach us to use all of the assets You have given us, including money, intelligence and personal attributes, as leverage to better serve You. Make us each a Holy conduit, this day. We pray these things in Your Holy name, amen.

Bruce Caldwell