“Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things.”
John 5:19 CSB
Lord help me to do only the things that You would do. Allow my heart and mind to ask, if Jesus were in my shoes, what would He do? Then give me the strength, courage and commitment to follow through with doing that.
“When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the disabled man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”
“Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.” Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk. Now that day was the Sabbath, After this, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.””
John 5:6-9, 14 CSB
I was thinking about God showing us who He is by sending Jesus to live with us and act like God…
Jesus sees this needy man and knows everything about him. Jesus wants to help him, but the man is full of excuses why he can’t help himself. I love that Jesus ignores the excuses and gives him what he really wants, healing…the thing the man had been earnestly seeking for 38 yrs.
First healing, then a mental reset…Jesus reminds him that through his healing he was now a different man. Who he was had been changed so he needs to act like the new man that he now is.
Lord, help me to see clearly when I am making excuses for why I continue to sin. You know that I earnestly want to be fully transformed…and have been earnestly seeking that for 38yrs. Help me to live as the new man you created me to be!
“Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
“Sir,” the official said to him, “come down before my boy dies.”
“Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said to him and departed. While he was still going home, his servants met him saying that his boy was alive. He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him,” they answered. The father realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.”
So he himself believed, along with his whole household.”
John 4:48-53 CSB
Belief is an incredible thing…it is the one requirement for salvation yet it is so hard for us. True belief requires actions that are in line with the thing we are placing our faith in. We can say we believe the bridge will hold us all we want, but until we walk out onto it, there is no evidence of faith.
This non-Jewish man showed his belief when he stopped pestering Jesus and returned home… His faith was cemented when he left and became real when he saw his healed son.
We must choose if we will believe, then our faith in Jesus is cemented when we see His action in our lives.
Lord, sometimes my faith is weak…please allow me to see your fingerprints in my life to cement my faith day by day! Forgive me for needing reminders and allowing doubts to creep into my heart!
“Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” Many more believed because of what he said. And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.””
John 4:39, 41-42 CSB
This passage reminds me that my testimony is important to attract others to Jesus, but ultimately they will meet Jesus themselves and they will be convinced by Him.
Lord, help me to introduce people to you, like I have surfing.
“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”
John 4:29 CSB
All her secrets were exposed, but for the first time she was not ashamed. Jesus saw her, knew her, loved her and cared deeply about her. She was saved by this simple interaction because Jesus fully understood her and did not reject he or cause shame.
Lord, thank You for knowing me the same way! Full of love and compassion, forgiveness and grace…help me to reflect You wherever I go. My desire is that people would recognize You in me, just like the woman saw You as messiah!
“The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.””
John 4:25-26 CSB
This woman was waiting for the Messiah, she knew He was coming and what He would do. It seems that she was excited about His coming and what He would do for her people. But she didn’t recognize Him when He came and was standing right in front of her.
Lord, I want to know You so well, that if You suddenly appeared I would recognize You. Help me to walk expectantly looking for Your return ready to join You at a moments notice!
“How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”
“You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”
John 4:9-10, 12 CSB
Jesus lived His life truly, He was not moved by the culture into sinful ways, like prejudice or callousness. He genuinely cared for this woman and went straight to what mattered the most, her spiritual needs…even though that was not what she wanted to be talking about.
She instantly compares Jesus to the greatest humans that she knew about, implying that Jesus must be weaker, or less of a provider. She will soon find out that Jesus is far greater than anyone we could compare Him to.
Lord, help me to think of You as the great, powerful, rewarding, caring and infinite God You are…not as an amplified version of a good man. You see my heart and are not moved by cultural norms…You go right to the thing that matters most. Allow me to see others the same way.
“The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who disobeys the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.”
John 3:36 CSB
Lord, thank you for saving me! I love You and want to follow and obey You at every step. I need your power to keep my belief strong enough to do what You say. I am tempted to fall down in believing that You have the answers and think that my ideas are better than yours. When my belief fails, I disobey You. Strengthen my faith in You so that I can follow you in joy and peace!
“John responded, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven… He must increase, but I must decrease.””
John 3:27, 30 CSB
Lord, help me to remember that You are behind everything good and challenging in my life. All of the things that You give have a simple goal: make me more Christlike and bring You glory. These are both things that I see great value and increasing reward in. Peace and contentment as well as joy and delight in You!
Although becoming more Christlike means that my own preferences are slowly becoming less important, the confidence in You soars! This confidence brings great peace as I rest in Your plan rather than my own. Help me to trust You more each day!
“For God loved the world in this way:
He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
This is the judgment:
The light (Jesus) has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.””
John 3:16-17, 19-21 CSB
God, thank You for loving me! I don’t deserve the love that You show me because my natural desire is to do what makes me happy, or at least less stressed. Help me to love You enough to always go into the light, go towards You, rather than avoiding it because it convicts me of my selfish ways.
“Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God…. unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.
The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.””
John 3:3, 5-6, 8 CSB
What a confusing start of the conversation, especially since the answer was so much different than the question…however this is a powerful statement. Just knowing that Jesus was from God does not give you eternal life. Jesus is telling us that our spiritual birth will change who we are and what we actually do.
That is why he uses the analogy of the wind, just like we don’t see the wind we can very easily see the results of the wind. The same is true of people who are “born again”, saved: we cannot see the Holy Spirit enter the person, but we see the evidence of that change.
We go from selfishness, where every decision is based on what makes me feel good, to making decisions based on what God wants us to do. The evidence is when we begin to sacrifice the things that previously made us happy to instead do what makes God happy. The best part is- we are actually happier doing what God wants!!!
“So the Jews replied to him, “What sign will you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.” Therefore the Jews said, “This temple took forty-six years to build, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the statement Jesus had made.”
John 2:18-22 CSB
Lord, sometimes when I read scripture I don’t understand why that you tell me to do certain things. I look at it like the Jews and get very confused. In my mind the logic doesn’t work Yet over and over again, it proves out to be true!
Help me to have faith to trust that You know what You are talking about and the strength to do whatever You are calling me to do. Help me to trust Your Word even when it doesn’t seem right!
“After making a whip out of cords, he drove everyone out of the temple with their sheep and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables. He told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!””
John 2:15-16 CSB
With the present day temple of God being my heart, this verse takes on new meaning. In what ways do I miss the point and begin to allow work, money or even fun take up residence in my heart? How has my heart begun to worship anything other than Jesus?
Lord, highlight those things for me so that I don’t end up missing You in worship. It is such a sweet experience to praise You and to sit in awe of what You have done in my life. I pray that my heart and mind would be constantly aware of all that You are doing around me and turn that to glorification of Your name!
““Do whatever he tells you,” his mother told the servants.
Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.”
John 2:5, 11 CSB
Jesus’ miraculous work is done in our lives to help us believe. We are cared for in the everyday situations and it would be easy for us to pass it off as normal life, but Gods fingerprints are all around us.
Lord, help me to see Your work in my life today! Let me give You the glory and allow me to believe and obey You more and more each day!
““How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you,” Jesus answered.”
John 1:48 CSB
Lord, this feels so unfamiliar…it takes us days or weeks to get to know someone. Yet, You know us already before we are ever introduced. You know every good deed and every bad thought. You know our fears and what delights us. You know our weakness and strengthens. You know our future and history. Nobody sees us as clearly as You do…
You know us so well, it is nearly unbelievable that you actually love us! Yet this is Your posture toward every person. Love, gentleness, kindness, and faithfulness inhabit every interaction. Your character is on display and I don’t deserve it!
Thank You for loving me! Let your perfect love be reflected in my interactions with others.
