John 5: 24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgement, but has passed from death into life.”
Dear God,
Thank You for the scriptures, and that I have the peace and ability to read them freely. Please fill me with Your Spirit, so that I will not just read them, but understand and assimilate them correctly, with selfless, whole heartedness; which is not how Jesus spoke about the priests and scribes. John 5: 39 “You search the Scriptures, but in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” It is a fearful thing if I (we) knowingly put out own preconceived ideas or constructs into the reading of Your word, and thus miss Your intended message; as was the case with the priests in Christ’s day.
Please again open my heart and mind, so that I not only have the understanding from Your words, that You intended, but also a humble desire to open my heart and mind and give You my whole heart, life and practice, and not be as the priests, as I mentioned previously. In John 5: 46, 47 Jesus told the priests and leaders, that they read and believed Moses and yet did not believe or accept Himself, of whom Moses wrote about under Your inspiration. If we form and allow such a closed view to grow, we will essentially be worshipping ourselves. We have no supernatural powers to get us out of our mess of sin, and we cannot get to heaven without Your powers to overcome the sin that precludes us from heaven. So for me the sum of it is, to rely on myself instead of You, would give the end result of my missing out on heavenly delights, as well Your full blessings in the here and now. I think in this case I make a poor prospect to myself, apart from You.
How grateful I am Jesus, that You are still our God given, Life, Light and Saviour, and that the two of You are in all ways as one.
Proverbs 28: 24 “A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
Dear God,
Thank You that we are never left or forsaken by You, and I know that Jesus also always loves and cares for me. He even now inter-cedes His spilt blood on my behalf, in heaven with You His Father. Not that You Father God, are against me (we) or need persuading to forgive my sins, or accept me as one of those saved by the blood of Jesus=which makes me Your spiritual child. It as I understand, just that Jesus completed His mission on earth that You and He had decided upon. And it can only be the shedding of His sacrificial body on the cross that is able to atone for my every confessed sin.
It is often hard to grasp, that Jesus loves every sinner without reserve, and when I approach Him and ask to be forgiven, it is His delight to do so; and He is free to do so. Jesus truly is my Savour and friend, closer than any earthly person can be. Yet despite His strong care and love for me, He awaits my permission to fill this position in my life, during which time, I have absolute freedom to express myself.
I am blessed indeed to be called a child of God and loved by You both as one.
Amen