Friday 17 Oct 2008

Friday Reading: John 13:31-35

Key Verse: John 13:35
35  By this all shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love toward one another.

Devotion:
This was the time when Jesus introduced the disciples to the eleventh commandment; one that should have been implicit in following the previous ten, but one that we need to be reminded of because of our fractious ways. We get upset by the smallest things and those moments then bring us to feelings of anger against others – even over the smallest of things! Jesus told us that He was about to give His life for our sins. No other act in history has or ever will be remembered and glorified as much as this – that a perfect man give his life as a thief and a murderer just so that we may be forgiven our sins that we do each day against God...

We cannot follow Him into heaven now, or indeed as soon as we accept Him as our Saviour; that time has to wait until we either die or until He decides to take us home with Him. We are assured that place in heaven because of what He has done for us; we are assured a place by His side as long as we know Him and He knows us.

But one of the biggest things that keeps us from knowing Him is our own feelings. We harbour feelings of lust, anger, jealousy and so much more. These feelings keep us from concentrating on Him and on glorifying Him. We are the ones that need to put those feeling aside and concentrate on our feelings towards Him. Just as we should concentrate on our feeling in a relationship with another person, we need to do so with Christ. When we do that, we will find the love that He has for us and with that love will come understanding about how to pass that love on to others rather than our own frivolous and vain feelings. With those new feelings in our lives, we will be able to keep this commandment; that we should love one another in the same way as He has loved us. If we cannot do this, we have to question our own sincerity with God...

Points to Ponder:
How often do you argue over little things?
 
How often do you argue with or question God?