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Devotion: My Advocate in Heaven
by Marina Rojas
(Home)

Job 16:19 Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.

How often I choose to forget that I do not meet up to the litmus test of righteousness. How often I choose not to look into a mirror of my life's failures, deciding in its stead to accentuate the positive about my walk with God.

When held to the judgment of others, I am a miserable failure. When held to my judgment, I am nothing more, nothing less than a complete disaster. You would think that I had no hope, no reason to go on.

But I keep the hope in my heart that has been built up through my faith in one greater than I. I carry the hope of a merciful, loving God in my soul, looking to His kind mercies that renew every day.

I realized a long time ago that God's renewing mercies are so unlike my limited ability towards being merciful. I want to quit counting when I forgive way before the 7 x 70 mandate. He wants me to multiply my forgiveness 7 x 70 by renewing that forgiveness as He does. Daily.

There are many people who cross my path in life that I would consider legalistic in their approach to following God. I prefer not to hold them to my standards, as I know that like me, they are fulfilling their place ordained in God's kingdom. But I would also prefer that they not hold me to their standards.

Sometimes, I feel so bad that they feel frustrated with my Mary Poppins approach to freedom in God, but I cannot yield to their desire to load me down with the chains that they have chosen to carry along the straight and narrow.

When I was a baby Christian, just barely able to choke down the milk of the Word, I became a pretzel bending sideways and over backwards for the legalistic demands of others. So caught up in trying to do what they were hearing from God for my life, I wasted a lot of time and effort working to fulfill the demands they made on me while saying their ways were the only ways to reach God.

Then one glorious day, the Lord Himself began to show me that He alone offers the freedom that our soul seeks. When I look to His Word, seeking His will in my life, I find that He uses others to confirm His desires for my walk, not to push or shove me where He wants me to be. In other words, God sends crossing guards into my life, not seeing-eye dogs.

I know I will stand before the judgment throne one day. I hope I will be able to take in all His majesty and glory the same way I do when I look at His breathtaking creations, but with an awe and wonder that will never escape my eternal soul.

As I walk this straight and narrow path here on this earth, as I slip and stumble once in a while upon a pebble (or boulder) that jumps out in my way, I remember that there is One that is keeping my every move, my every word, my every thought and every deed in a book recorded.

But I know that even now my witness is in heaven, my advocate is on high. Jesus is watching my every triumph, and my every tragedy.

I praise God that my heart has been already donated to the Son. My soul belongs to the One who will stand at my side before the Judge, and advocate for me, the miserable failure, and then He will claim me as His own.

Daily, I remember that one day I will face judgment. But I am a client of the world's Most High Attorney, with whom Mercy triumphs over judgment. Praise God for that.

Dear Heavenly Father, We come before you right now, Lord, asking for forgiveness for our many failures. We ask you for your renewed mercies to be poured out upon our legalistic hearts, Lord, so that we can become more like you. Help us to touch the lives of others for your plans and purposes, Lord. Help us let someone else know that you are there, Lord, just waiting for that personal relationship with them. Send people that will help us to grow in you, Father, not people who will make demands on us that we were never meant to carry. Thank you for your Son, Father. Thank you for our advocate, Lord. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.