The passage I read
was John 14:15-24
You can find that passage here:
The verse that most
stood out to me:
18 I will
not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world
will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will
live.
As I reflect:
This is an amazing
passage in every way. It is powerful and
moving to my heart to hear and know that what my Savior has said is true. His Holy Spirit is with me and in me and it
shows. I look at who I am today and
compare with who I was, and the Holy Spirit can be seen at work doing
wonders. I love everything about this
passage.
I heard earlier this
week a quote along the lines of, “I see so many people in church claiming to be
children of God, and yet throughout the week, they act like orphans”. This rings true to me as I also see it and
can explain that as true looking at this passage. The reason so many claim to be His children
and yet don’t act like it is because they are of the world and in this passage
Jesus says this Holy Spirit is available to those who see him and know him;
those who love God and desire to keep his commands. He is our Helper and our Strength. He does not belong to nor empower those who
are just faking it and showing up at church to go through the motions so that
others may see or because they heard it’s the thing to do. This Helper is only for those who have been
adopted and are children of God. We are
greatly in need of Him.
I find it kind of
interesting that this is in my week of study on “obedience: God’s pathway to
blessing” but not on last week’s study of “Promises: God’s pathway to
perspective”. Though I see the point of
course about obedience being a prime evidence of our love for Him, I also see
several promises throughout the passage to those who love Him:
He will give us an
advocate to help us and be with us forever
We know him
He lives with and in
us
We are not abandoned
We who love Jesus
are loved by the Father
He has made His home
with us through His Holy Spirit
These are promises
made to the obedient follower of Christ our Messiah. I know that at one time in my life, His name
was on my lips and yet I knew Him not. I
fooled some people into thinking I was saved and I may have even fooled myself
at that same time in my life. But
looking back I can know I was not truly saved and didn’t truly love God because
I can see my life covered in unrepentive disobedience to God. Since then, there has been much change and I
can define myself as an obedient son of the Most High. This isn’t my identity because I was forced
into servant hood. It is my identity
because I love Him and received with joy His abundant grace. May my life always reflect the very present work
of the Holy Spirit and as others see me between services, may I not be found
acting as an orphan but rather as an obedient disciple.
My response to the Lord:
Lord what more can I say but to express my thanks to
you. You are wonderful beyond all words
and I am unable to begin to describe how grateful I am that you have not
abandoned me; how filled with joy I am at the thought that you chose to walk
with me and save me, thrusting me into a new world of undeserved blessing. I deserved your wrath and yet you have
adopted me and shown me love beyond compare.
May your Holy Spirit guide and teach me always and may my eyes and ears
never be closed to you.
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