Wednesday 9 Jan 2019

January 9: John 8:12-16

Key Verse: John 8:12
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Devotion:
It is hard to believe some people when they start talking about how much they have done or how good they are themselves; we seek proof from people who are uplifting themselves. Our bibles tell us of so many miracles Jesus did, and yet they are by no means all listed. As John put it, there is probably not enough room in the world to keep the books if all of the things that Christ did were written down! If we ever wanted proof, there is only one place where we can find the central written depository of that proof – that is our bibles. If you had written proof of all your friend had done which proved what they had done, you probably would not have any problem believing what they say – as long as it agreed with what you had written down!

On the other side of the coin, you may simply not like hearing about what your friend has done because it makes you look less good in some way. If they are able to list so many things that they have done and yet you cannot, you suddenly don’t look as great as you first thought you were... Our bibles and Christ’s Word will have that effect on us too because we will see how bad our lives are compared to His. We also suddenly see how much we owe Him for what He has done for us on the cross.

The Pharisees were up against these same things. They had heard others talking about Jesus but they had also learned a lot of rules and regulations from their religion. Their religion had conditioned them to such an extent they did not want to believe Jesus. He made it sound too simple! Through their religion they thought they were the good guys and told everyone exactly that. For Jesus to come before them and show them they were not so good anymore meant they would no longer be the men on the top of the hill! That too meant they did not want to believe. We have all manner of things like this in our lives which stop us from believing God’s Word and we do find it hard to let them go; but we must let them go if we want to continue walking by Christ’s side. Let go of the things which tie us down and take on the truth of God’s Word.

Points to Ponder:
Do you always believe what people tell you?

How much more proof would you need than the truth?