How to Put Together a Prayer Pack

Pocket 12 – Who is God?

In pocket 12, keep a list of attributes of who God is as you come across them in the Bible. 

Pocket 13 – Who you are in Him?

In pocket 13, keep a list of attributes of who you are in Him as you come across them in the Bible.

Let’s focus for a moment on the Ten Commandments as listed in the Old Testament and then focus on how Jesus summed these up in the New Testament.  

Here are the Ten Commandments that the Lord gave to Moses in the Old Testament:

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make idols and worship them.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath Day and keep in holy.
5. Honor your Father and Mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet.

Here is how Jesus summed up the Ten Commandments in the New Testament:

Matthew 22:35-39
A lawyer asked Jesus a question to test Him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The first four commandments have to do with who God is and the last six commandments have to do with who you are in Him.  When the commandments were given to Moses the people could not obey the ten commandments no matter hard they tried and neither can we.  The harder we try we fail, because apart from Christ we can do nothing. But in Him, we can do anything.  Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” How is that possible?  Here are some verses that answer that.

2 Corinthians 5:21 

“For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

I John 3:5

“You know that He appeared in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin.”

I Peter 1:18-19

“Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

Hebrews 4:15

“For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Hebrews 7:26

“For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a High Priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.”

Jesus came, lived a sinless life, died, and rose again for our sake, so that we could be saved from the power of sin and death.  In Him, by faith alone, apart from works, we are victorious and are forgiven. Jesus’ righteousness is ours, so when God the Father looks at us from heaven, He sees us through the lens of His Son who is perfect.  This is so profound and yet so simple that little children can understand it. 

So, Jesus’ answer to the lawyer and to us sums up the Ten Commandments into two.  The first is to know who He is.  By knowing Him well, He will  enable you to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, thus obeying the great and first commandment.  Second, Jesus’ answer to the lawyer and to us is to know who we are in Him.  By knowing who we are in Him, He will enable us we to love ourselves, not in self-centered way, but in a way that puts Him first in everything, and this love for Him, lived out in us will enable us to love our neighbor, thus obeying the second commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.

We must know Him.  We must know we are in Him.  We must know what we are about and set boundaries in our lives to protect what we know about Him and what we know about who we are in Him. I learned in a wonderful class called, “Becoming a Woman of Strength and Dignity” that boundaries are not something we put on another person demanding such and such, they are boundaries we put on ourselves to protect what we know to be true about who God is and who we are in Him.

So, let’s turn our attention as we close to who God is and who you are in Him.

Who is God? He is without Sin.

Who are you in Him? We are Saved Sinners.

When my daughter Gwendolyn was little she would often fill out the church bulletin.  When it came to the part to check off things about you were, she always checked the box that said ‘seniors,’ thinking it said ‘sinners.’  (So sweet). She asked me one Sunday why that box was there because she knew that the Bible said that ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  I gently corrected her that it actually was the box for older people to check, but then we talked about sin and what it means to be a sinner, and what it means to be a saved sinner.  Since Gwendolyn had given her heart to Jesus, I told her that she was not a sinner anymore.  She was a saved sinner and that there was a huge difference.  She, in Christ, was and is a new creation.  For those of you in Christ, you are not sinners anymore, you are saved sinners.  Now that is something to jump for joy over!

Here are the songs, “Greatest Commandment” by Seed Family Worship and “Speechless” by Steven Curtis Chapman.

Blessings to you as you pray.