Rubbish

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Trusting and Treasuring Jesus

     For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him [Jesus] will never be put to shame.” Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. 1 Pet. 2:6-7 

     But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Phil 3:7-11

     Dear Lord Jesus, our world hangs the word precious, on things it deems of great and lasting worth. Thus we have precious metals, like silver, gold, and platinum; or precious gemstones, such as diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds. But if anything or anyone deserves the appellation “precious,” it’s you, Lord Jesus—God’s chosen cornerstone and precious capstone of our redemption.

     For the combined worth of all precious metals and gemstones, that have ever existed, does not compare with the unsearchable riches that are found only in you. Compared to you, Lord Jesus, all other treasures are wanna-be imitations and fool’s gold, empty trifles and illusionary nothings; even as Paul says, they are to be counted as dung and rubbish, when compared to you and the inestimable privilege of knowing you.

     To trust and treasure you, Lord Jesus, is to be free from the burden of our guilt and the condemnation of our sin. To trust and treasure you, Jesus is to boast in the gift of your righteousness, to rest in the constancy of your love, to wake up each day to your endless mercies, to hear you sing to us in the gospel. To trust and treasure you is to feel the stranglehold of shame lose its grip over our hearts; it’s to have the idols of our hearts exposed and dethroned; it’s to be set free to love as we are loved, to forgive as we’ve been forgiven, to accept others as you accept us .

     Jesus, we praise you for taking the guilt of our sin and the shame of our brokenness on the cross. You became sin for us that in you we might become righteousness of God. Because of you, judgment day holds no terror. The cross was our judgment day, and that day has come and come. We no longer fear the gaze of God because of the grace of God we have in you.

     May you become more and more precious to us, Jesus. May the gospel continue to change the price tags on everything in our world. May yesterday’s values be considered today’s loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing you. So very Amen we pray in your glorious and grace-full name.