On the last Sunday of September 2024, Jamaal Herod shared a testimony at Cuyahoga Valley Church of how Jesus is his helper.
In the testimony he mentioned some words he has developed for letters of the alphabet that help him stay focused on Jesus.
Here’s his list, followed by his testimony. Jesus is…
Awesome, Beautiful, Comforter, Deliverer, Everlasting, Faithful, Gracious, Healer, Image of God, Joy, King, Lord, Messiah, Narrow road, Overcomer, Peace, Quiet place, Redeemer, Savior, and Tetelestai.
***
I needed help!
A young lady called my wife one day some years ago and what she said to her was, “my husband did a Jamaal.”
You might wonder, “What’s a Jamaal?” What the young lady meant was “my husband had an affair and there is also a child involved.” When your name becomes that actual sin – when I became the title of my own sin – it put things into perspective not what other people thought of me, but how they see me. Especially in my own household.
I have been plagued by temptation causing me to even second-guess my own salvation, and it even had me believe that it was all about me. It drew me in and told me everything that I wanted to hear with its only goal is the destruction of my faith, distracting me from God’s love and eventually leading me to my death.
Temptation is a distraction from doing the will of God. Temptation is the very thing that will cause you to forget who you are and whose you are.
When you put temptation into action it will start to consume you. I was ashamed, at times discouraged, but I also had to recognize who I’ve hurt in the process. In my own selfishness I had fallen into the traps of temptation, while hoping for a small chance of escape.
I had to finally come to the realization that I needed help. I needed to submit and surrender everything under Jesus (James 4:7 submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you). I needed to make Jesus my focus, but I also had to make the proper changes in order to erase what I used to be.
You see, I was shown how to do wickedness, how to follow the path of evildoers, but that’s just an excuse, because I also know that it says, don’t go that way, don’t even think about it. Turn away and keep moving (Prov 4:14-15).
So, I turned to Jesus and He rebuilt my broken foundation, He changed me from my humanistic sinful title back to son, back to heir. He not only restored me, but he also became my foundation and my brother and my deliverer and my priest. He is now forever my Lord.
Jesus is the pioneer, laying a path for us to follow when it comes to being tempted by using Scripture. He has offered us an escape plan, Matthew 26: 41 where he says, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
The plan is to, PAY ATTENTION TO JESUS (mention verse 1, Pay closer attention), WATCH JESUS, FOCUS JUST ON JESUS AND PRAY LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON JESUS!!!
Here’s how I deal with temptation now: I put on my best pair of running shoes, not On Clouds, not Nikes, or any other brand. I put on a fresh pair of “Joseph’s” and I run. In the Bible is a man names Joseph who literally ran from sexual temptation.
I run through my alphabets of Jesus, where I take different words about who Jesus is in my life. The letter A is for Awesome and S is for Savior and if you just need a reminder, that 20th letter T, for me, is Tetelestai because IT IS FINISHED!
Jesus is my Helper!
