HEBREWS 5:1-6… For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself. And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was. So also, Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him: “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You”;  just as He says also in another passage, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

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HEBREWS 5:7-10… “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”

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HEBREWS 5:11-14… “Concerning Him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

Oh Lord, my God, by Your grace, through the mediation of Your Son, and the intercession of the Holy Spirit, I lift my plea to You this day… grow me up!  I want to please You, O God.  I want others to see me becoming more like Jesus my Lord day by day. I want to exude some measure of the grace and wisdom that speaks of one who walks close with the Lord. I want to be able to look with spiritual eyes beyond the surface of things to see the spiritual and eternal importance of what is happening in my life and in the lives of others living all around me. I want to have my senses trained to truly know good from evil and to seek that which pleases You and makes You smile. And Lord, I want to learn obedience. So, do whatever it is You need to do in my life to conform me to the image of Your Son and to walk in obedience to Your will like He did. Lord, I know that I am called to sacrifice. But I also know that You know that, regardless of what I think about myself, still, I’m not very good at that. Any sacrifice that I have ever made for the sake of Your holy name, or for the cause of Christ, pales in comparison with the sacrifices You and Your Son have made on my behalf. But God, I am also reminded of, and I am grateful for, the words of my Lord Jesus when He told the religious leaders of His day, “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  So, Lord, while I want to learn obedience, and I want to be willing to sacrifice whatever I need to sacrifice for the sake of others who need to experience Your love and grace, most of all I ask that You work in my heart to cultivate a compassion toward others, the kind of compassion that Jesus had and that reflects Your great love for me and for each and every one of us.

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