Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”
Then they asked him, “Where is your Father?”
“You know neither me nor my Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew me, you would also know my Father.”
John 8:12, 19 CSB
Lord, help me to live as if I know You!
“Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery.
When Jesus stood up, he said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”
John 8:4, 10-11 CSB
Jesus came to pay the penalty for our sin, but also to help us know who God is and how He acts. We sometimes imagine that God is in heaven looking for opportunities to punish us for failing or sinning…but this passage helps us to see His compassion, mercy and love.
He does desire that we stop sinning, but He sees our brokenness and wants what is best for us! Lord thank You for being more compassionate than I would be. Thank you for loving me and being patient with me even when I don’t deserve it.
“Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?”
“You aren’t from Galilee too, are you?” they replied.“Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
John 7:51-52 CSB
The religious rulers were blinded by their expectations and preconceived ideas. They were so confident of their own correctness that they were not thinking clearly. They were willing to punish Jesus without a trial, because He was saying things that didn’t match their ideas…willing and even planing and peer pressuring each other to ignore the law which they claimed to perfectly protect.
When Nicodemus pushed back they gave him good instruction…do the research, find out what scripture says! They were confident of the answers, but were completely wrong…in fact Galilee is where the Messiah, the savior was supposed to come from. This highlighted the pride of the leaders because if they were truly doing their work well, they would have known…but instead they were just a big club enjoying their privilege…their station…their power.
It actually reminds me of politics today. “Christians” following blindly the republican dogma, not even knowing that much of what they stand for is directly opposed to what scripture teaches. We cannot align with any mainstream party because they both miss the calling of Christ.
Lord, help me to actually know what Your Word says and follow You rather than a person or a group of people who have/want power!
“On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
So the crowd was divided because of him.”
John 7:37-39, 43 CSB
Lord, thank You for giving us the Spirit to live inside of me and continually provide direction, strength and comfort. I pray that as I go through this day, Your Spirit will be obvious to those around me and that everyone I engage with would be blessed by You through me.
“Some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? Yet, look, he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. Can it be true that the authorities know he is the Messiah? Then they tried to seize him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come.”
John 7:25-26, 30 CSB
Jesus is talking publicly in the most dangerous place possible where people literally want to kill Him. Yet He does it fearlessly because He trusts His Father God explicitly.
Lord help me to trust You in every situation. I am often worried about what people will think of me or if I will be in trouble, help me to have boldness and confidence in You!
“Jesus answered them, “My teaching isn’t mine but is from the one who sent me.
Stop judging according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment.””
John 7:16, 24 CSB
People were really unsure about who Jesus really was. They were confused because he wasn’t saying all the same things as the religious priests but they seemed so true and powerful. Then He was also doing miracles which were hard to ignore.
This passage Jesus tells them what happens on the outside is not a good way to judge people because it is what is happening internally that matters. The internal should tell the bigger story.
Lord, You know that my internal life shapes what is happening on the outside. Help me to trust You to form me internally so that inside and outside would bring You glory!
“After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee, since he did not want to travel in Judea because the Jews were trying to kill him. So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples can see your works that you are doing. The world cannot hate you, but it does hate me because I testify about it — that its works are evil.”
John 7:1, 3, 7 CSB
Can you imagine having Jesus as your older brother? Even as a kid he did everything right…I bet they really wanted to see him finally get what he deserved. Someone to finally show him that he was not perfect! How frustrating would that be?!? But did they really want Jesus to be killed?
The reason Jesus states that people want to kill him is very relatable today. They hate Him because he tells the truth about how sinful they are living. Nobody wants to hear that their decisions are motivated by Satan when they are rejecting Gods way.
Lord, help me to speak clearly and lovingly. Full of compassion and tenderness but not shying away from your truth.
“Therefore, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?”
He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father.” From that moment many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him.”
John 6:60, 65-66 CSB
What a blessing that God has reached out of heaven and selected me to understand and accept Jesus. Not everyone believes and will be saved. Scripture says that God is willing that none perish, yet many people choose to reject God and follow their own desires. Although they get everything they want today, their eternity is separation from God.
“Truly I tell you, anyone who believes has eternal life.”
John 6:47 CSB
The message doesn’t get any simpler than that! Belief is not easy nor is it easy to actually follow Jesus, but the rewards of peace, joy and contentment are incomparable. Lord I need Your help to have faith to believe You and to obey.
“Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. It is written in the Prophets: And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father comes to me — ”
John 6:37, 45 CSB
Lord, I want to be close to You. I want to know You as perfectly as possible while I am here on earth. Father God, thank You for drawing me and securing me in relationship with you. I don’t deserve Your love and compassion or even the security You provide. Allow my heart and mind to listen and learn as I read Your word!
“What sign, then, are you going to do so that we may see and believe you?” they asked. “What are you going to perform? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
“I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again. But as I told you, you’ve seen me, and yet you do not believe.”
John 6:30-36 CSB
What is so shocking about this passage is that literally the day before Jesus fed them (4,000+) with a little boys lunch…talk about bread from heaven! Now they’re telling Jesus that if he would just do a miracle, then they would believe in Him. How can this be? Did they just forget their lunch yesterday?
I think sometimes we respond the same way…God is doing the miraculous over and over in our lives, right under our noses, and we are expecting something else.
God, help me to see You at work around me and know You by Your Word. Help me to see You and believe!
“When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.”
“What can we do to perform the works of God?” they asked. Jesus replied, “This is the work of God — that you believe in the one he has sent.”
John 6:25-29 CSB
We humans always miss the real point. I am like these people, looking at the practical (the meal Jesus provided) rather than the eternal (what does God want me to do?). I love how Jesus primary concern is that we believe. Later on in the same book Jesus says that we should obey if we believe.
Lord, help me to obey, help me to believe and help me to love You!
“So when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat?” Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to have a little.”
[Miracle]
When they were full, he told his disciples, “Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.” So they collected them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had eaten.”
John 6:5, 7, 12-13 CSB
Gods plans compared to my plans are very different. The solutions that I come up with are bound by “reality” yet Gods plans have no limitations. Lord, help me to trust You alone in every situation! My ways are silly compared to Your perfect plans. Give me the faith to trust You in every moment!
“But I (Jesus) have a greater testimony than John’s because of the works that the Father has given me to accomplish. These very works I am doing testify about me that the Father has sent me. But you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life. But if you don’t believe what Moses wrote, how will you believe my words?”
John 5:36, 40, 47 CSB
I am so thankful that Jesus continues to do the impossible in my life and in situations around me. Evidence of all that God can do bolsters my confidence that He loves me and will protect me at every turn. It is heartbreaking to see people who refuse to believe all that God is doing and all that He has done recorded in scripture…it all happens so that we could believe and be transformed.
Lord strengthen my faith to believe even when all the evidence seems so small. Help me to see it for what it really is, an overwhelming tidal wave of reality that shouts who You are!!!
“Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life…I can do nothing on my own. I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.”
John 5:24, 30 CSB
When we believe, we pass from punishment into eternal life. Our eternal destiny is forever changed, but we should also demonstrate our belief. In other words, we should live like Jesus…we should follow in his footprints and people should be able to recognize that we are different, just like Jesus. He says here, He only does what God wants him to…
Lord help me to live this way! It is hard because I want what I want. My selfish desires are strong and I cannot choose to follow You on my own, I need the power of the Spirit to fill me up. Only by walking with You am I able to know your voice and direction and choose to lay down my desires and follow You! Help me to know You more!!!
“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.
