May 30: John 16:29-33
Key Verse: John 16:32
‘A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
Devotion:
I wonder if you have been very committed to something in your life and never imagined you would ever give up – until you look back and realise you have given up! I’m quite certain the disciples would never have imagined they would give up on following Jesus, especially now they were coming to terms with Jesus being the Son of God, but Jesus was predicting what they would end up doing when He gave His life up on the cross.
God is the one who knows all things; He certainly knows what lies ahead for each of us even if we cannot figure our own lives out! Even if we try our hardest to follow and obey God, we will probably still fall short of the mark just as the disciples would end up doing. They were committed to Christ and yet when they faced what they though was an impossible position, they gave in and followed the world, going back to their old lifestyles and wondering what went wrong!
Jesus knew what lay ahead for Him. He knew it was an impossible position, but He continued going forward to make sure that set of events which were foretold would come to pass. This is because He knew God had this all planned out and He was going to follow and obey no matter what!
We are human like the disciples. Jesus was human too… but He was not going to let the world dictate what He did – He was going to allow God the Father dictate what would happen. We are going to have to face certain trouble in our lives because we live in this world full of trouble. Jesus had to face trouble because He was human too. What we do with that trouble will dictate what sort of people we are! Jesus made sure He followed God. That is our aim too!
Points to Ponder:
Do you give in to worldly things?
When was the last time you obeyed God instead of the world?
May 29: Revelation 22:12-13
Key Verse: Revelation 22:13
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Devotion:
When the apostle was shown visions of heaven and all that is still to come, he was told the Lord would be coming again – soon. We get upset when things do not go according to our plans. We get cross when we are told something will happen and it takes longer than we thought. Jesus had already told the disciples they would not know when He was going to return; they were told only God the Father knew the time when Jesus would return.
That must have been a bit of a hard pill to swallow because they would have been used to knowing when things would happen. But now they were working with no time frame and no certainty like they may have ben used to!
Jesus wanted them to know they would receive their just rewards upon His return. These rewards would be based on what they had achieved in their lives, not a reward for being able to do good deeds or righteous acts but rewards for how much they had been able to do for God while they lived on earth!
Jesus declares Himself to be the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end! Jesus was with God in the beginning when the earth was created. He spoke the words which brought everything into place. He came to be with us and He came to lay down His life for our sin debt. He rose from the dead to overcome that sin debt on our behalf. Jesus is going to be here in the end too because He promised to come back to us!
Points to Ponder:
How do you see Jesus?
Will you trust Him with everything He has said?
May 28: John 16:23-28
Key Verse: John 16:26
In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.
Devotion:
As Jesus started to open up about being the Son of God, He started to tell the disciples these things figuratively; He knew if He told the the truth outright they would have trouble understanding and believing, but if He continue to drip-feed them until they could understand the truth, they would be able to accept it. Until now Jesus had told the disciples God would always listen to them when they lifted their prayers up to Him. Now He was telling them to ask Him for things...
This must have been a bit strange to the disciples then, but we can look back and understand what he was saying. They would have to take a leap of faith right there and then to accept Jesus as being their Messiah. I love the way the disciples are told not to ask Jesus for things hoping He will forward those prayers on to God, but to just ask in Jesus name!
Jesus is our advocate, but He is not a simple messenger! He is not there to ferry our prayers on to God but to answer our prayers in His position of the Son of God. Jesus wants us to know we can depend on Him and ask Him for anything, just as we ask God the Father for things.
With this and what we know about the Holy Spirit and Him being sent by Jesus to live with us, we can now ask the Holy Spirit things knowing He is God too. What a wonderful position to be in, being able to ask God, Christ or the Holy Spirit knowing He is going to answer our prayers. If you feel like God and Jesus are too far away because they are in Heaven, then ask the Holy Spirit because He lives with and in us here on earth!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you pray?
Will you ask for things from God in person?
May 27: John 16:20-23
Key Verse: John 16:21
A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.
Devotion:
I always try not to laugh when I read this verse because I really don’t think men know what it feels like to go through child birth. Why would a man write such an example when he does not know what it really feels like! I think maybe something was lost in translation, or it is an imagined feeling because the writer did not know what else to write!
These are the words which ring through my head when people say that being a Christian is going to be good and fun and a life without pain! The more we get to see how much opposition we get being a Christian in this world, the more we will begin to understand what it takes to stand up against the crowd. We will face a barrage of things which will make us hurt, fell uncomfortable and even want to give up – but we need to continue on forwards just like Jesus did.
We will never know the true pain and anguish Jesus went through because we do not have to carry the weight of the whole world on our shoulders like Jesus did. We will face people who want to shout at us. We will face people who will say we are weak and feeble. We will face people who treat us like we belong in a gutter… But if we can stand up and continue to say we are Christians and continue to show people we will not give up on Christ, then, just maybe they will take notice!
These harsh times are not going to last forever – they may feel like they are never-ending at times, but they will end when it is time for us to join Christ in heaven. We will not have to face any more of this grief when we get to heaven and the rewards will far out-weigh the punishment we went through… it just won’t seem like it at the time!
Points to Ponder:
How easy do you give up against hardships?
Will you make a stand for Christ?