Pocket Jesus

Yes, Pocket Jesus is available for purchase.  And yes, I have one!  I have "Pocket Jesus is Peace", to be exact.  Ok, so it's a little sacrilegious, but it was a gift from a friend...a gag gift, of course.  I honestly just died laughing when she gave it to me.  He came complete with a tacky religious bumper sticker in his little box.  Awesome!  haha

If you ever want to meet Peace Pocket Jesus, he does, indeed, travel around with me in my purse.  But don't expect him to do anything other than to possibly provoke a little laughter while his little green plastic self is laying there lifeless in the palm of your hand.

I was thinking...how many times do we reduce Jesus to a little insignificant item that we can carry around in our pocket to pull out when we decide that we need a little extra help?  Better yet, we could carry the whole Pocket Jesus set around so we're ready to whip Him out to "take care of" whatever issues might come our way.  And then when we're done with Him, we just put Him away in His little box.  There's no relationship with Him.  There's no daily communication.  There's no acknowledging Him unless we need something.

The fact is that we really can carry Jesus around with us all the time though...in our hearts and on our minds.  He isn't just some novelty item you can buy at your local Five & Dime.  If we are in Christ, we have the Holy Spirit living in us.  If you've believed in Him and put your faith in His salvation, He's promised that He will be with us wherever we go.  We don't need to rely on an inanimate powerless object.  We have an all-knowing, all-powerful, un-changing, and gracious Savior who loves us more than we can possibly imagine. 

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Jesus yearns to have a relationship with each and everyone of us.  He desperately desires for us to take the time to get to know Him better.  He doesn't just want a few minutes of your morning when you rush through your devotions.  He doesn't just want a half-hearted laundry list of prayer requests thrown at Him.  He wants us to remember Him and carry Him with us wherever we go.  He longs to have priority within our lives.  Jesus simply wants us to place Him in a position of prominence within our hearts and not just throw Him haphazardly in our back pockets without a second thought.