Jail House Rocked
I never have cash. Not because I mean to never have cash. I just never have it. I’ve been known to charge $2 at a McDonald’s drive through window, and we rarely get cotton candy at football games because the guy who walks up and down the steps selling it can’t take a credit card.
So the day I drove a new way and spotted the toll booth up ahead, I cringed.
A few years ago I hopped on this new road. Odds are the navigator in my car pointed me that direction. But no one said anything about a toll booth. It seems like they could post a sign beside the on-ramp: If you don’t have cash stop here! But they didn’t, so as I rolled up to the booth I hoped and prayed they took credit cards.
“Hi,” I said with a you’re-gonna-be-mad-at-me kind of smile. “You don’t by chance take credit cards, do you?”
I’m pretty sure the attendant rolled his eyes before he said no.
“You don’t have any cash?” he asked a bit bewildered.
“I have pennies,” I offered as I dug through the tray in my car. But he and I both knew no matter how many pennies I produced, they wouldn’t be enough to pay the toll.
What now?
I couldn’t move backwards. But I couldn’t pay the price to move forward.
I sat there stuck. With no way out.
‘I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. Isn’t this also your experience?’ Yes. I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison.” Romans 7:14 (MSG)
Friends, we’re all stuck. From Eve’s first bite of the forbidden fruit we’ve all spiraled into a cell of self and sin. We’ve locked ourselves up with the worries of this world and dead bolted the bars of the death around us.
And we all share the same problem I had at the toll booth that day. We have no way out … Until we meet Jesus, our Mediator.
For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity–the man Christ Jesus.”1 Timothy 2:5 (NLT)
Our Mediator storms the gates of sin and death, grabs our hands and shouts, She’s mine! I paid her debt. She’s free.
The guy at the toll booth that day eventually let me through – mostly because I was backing up traffic. He dropped a few coins in the bucket and ushered me on my way, glad to see me go, I’m sure.
But our Mediator goes much further than the grumpy guy at the toll booth. The toll Jesus paid is only the beginning.
He is able to save those who approach God through Him for all time because He will forever live to be their advocate in the presence of God.” Hebrews 7:25 (VOICE)
When our lips can’t find words to say, and our hearts don’t know what to pray, Jesus pleads for us.
He sees your face and begs for God’s grace to embrace you.
Every minute. Every hour. Every day.
Back in August I met a new friend when I picked up my son from a basketball camp. We exchanged pleasant conversation and friendly smiles then went our separate ways.
I barely recalled the details of that conversation until several weeks later when we ran into each other again.
My new friend explained how she’d prayed for me and my family since we met that day. She told of how God burdened her soul for us. As she went on my eyes clouded up, and I let her in on a prayer no one ever knew I’d prayed.
Please God, tell someone to pray for me. I don’t know what I need, but I know I need You, Lord. Please tell people to pray.
No one, that is, but my Mediator. Jesus knows our needs before we ask. And He lives to lead us to the throne of God.
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)
*This post is the 3rd of 8 in the “Names of God” series.
This series birthed from a “Names of God” Adorenament set my family and I love. So, I’m giving away a set of these ornaments next week on Wednesday, December 24. Subscribe to my blog via email (box at the top of the right hand column) to be entered to win! And come back all week for more giveaways! 
