Category Archives: John

31 “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. 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. 33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

John 16:31-33

Dear God, no matter how hard we try, our sinful human nature just won’t let us really perform at our best until the chips are down and we are facing adversity. I can’t think of a time when my truly best work was done in the midst of good fortune and easy times, but I can think of many times when crisis put me into action and through it I came up with some of my greatest successes.

I was at a meeting yesterday where we got bad news. This is a very professionally run group of people, but realities in their business are making them respond and raise their game. The same is true for where I work. I try to keep us moving and doing good work, but the fact remains that we do our best work when we are facing adversity.

How much of that can be said of my private life as well? All of it, of course. I am at my best as a husband/father when we are facing adversity. I am at my most productive as just an individual when I have to raise my game to meet a specific challenge. And I am at my best as a Christian when I am being pressed because, although I try to discipline myself to come to you regularly when things are good, my heart kicks it up to 11 when I am under pressure.

Father, I would ask that you forgive me for my failings in this area, but, frankly, you seem to completely understand this and allow for it in your love for me. So help me to be who you need me to be. Help me to love those around me who need my love. Help me to seek your face and really bathe in your Holy Spirit. And help me to dig in and do good work today for the sake of those who it helps, for my sake, but most of all for your Kingdom’s sake.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”

John 20:19-20,24-25

Dear God, pobrecito Thomas (poor Thomas). I don’t think John intended to single him out as a “doubter,” but as someone expressing what they were all feeling. What were they feeling? Despair. Frustration. Fear. Uncertainty. Lack of direction/confusion. Anger. Really, the list I am coming up with here is limited only to the amount of time I am willing to give to it—and then I would still miss some. But my point is, I think John felt the same way Thomas did.

There’s a fun, campy song by Carman called “Sunday’s on the Way.” There’s a like that says, “When problems try to bury you and make it hard to pray, it may seem like Friday night, but Sunday’s on the way.” “Sunday” is the unknown moment that we won’t know when it comes until after we’ve passed it. In the midst of overwhelmedness, confusion, despair, fear, anger, etc., my hope isn’t in a specific outcome. My hope isn’t in a timeline. My only hope is that you are in your heaven and all is right with the world.

Father, to quote another song, “[I] don’t know where all this is going, or how it all works out. Lead [me] to peace that passes understanding. A peace beyond all doubt.”

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people. And everybody is going to him instead of coming to us.” John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’ It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the bridegroom’s friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

Dear God, these last two sentences are great. I find it interesting that John’s disciples are jealous of the Messiah’s success. They were obviously enjoying the fame and attention they were getting by hanging out with this odd, but Godly guy. Now, they saw Jesus having more “success” than John (and maybe they had some personal rivalries with Jesus’ disciples) so they were concerned.

But since John was their teacher, you were able to teach them through John. The lesson? Jesus is greater. Celebrate his success. He must increase and all of us must decrease. I wonder what the conversations among them were like after this teaching from John. How did they handle this—especially since John was close to being arrested.

Father, help me to yield to your instruction. Help me to decrease and you increase. Help me to do whatever I can to bring glory to you and deflect it from myself. Help me to love. Help me to worship. Help me to do everything you have for me to do.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?”

John 6:53,66-67

Dear God, I left our verses 54-65 because I wanted to link the subject to the verb, as it were. Jesus says some hard things here at the end of John 6, but it’s almost like he’s intentionally turning up the heat to clear off the chaff. The problem I have when I read this passage is that I’m pretty sure that, if I had come along with Jesus this far if I had been there at the time, I’m pretty sure this would have been the last straw for me. I would have been wrong, but I probably would have left.

With what was in Jesus’ future, I wonder if he was just really drilling down to see who would be with him post-resurrection after the real disillusionment of the crucifixion had happened. I recently read a book about special forces training in the army and what they put people through mentally, physically and emotionally. The trainee who made it all of the way through said (disclaimer, I don’t necessarily agree with this, but I think there’s some truth to it) that he used to think getting to the end and not quitting was about determination, but after going through it he decided that the people who didn’t make it were the ones who couldn’t make that final decision to not think for themselves and be completely subject to a superior’s orders. Those that made it, on the other hand, were willing to have individual thought completely purged from them and then have it rebuilt in the military’s image. Is that a little of what Jesus was doing here?

Father, this has always been a hard story for me. I know you loved the people who went away. I know you followed through with your plan for them as well as anyone else. But for the job at hand, perhaps you just didn’t need them. I wonder what happened to a lot of them. I guess, as for me, my hope is that you will forgive and allow for my failings.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

John 3:14-21

Dear God, as I read this passage and try to compare it to the story from Numbers 21 I am trying to make the link between the viper-stricken person who had grumbled in the wilderness and me, the guy who needs to look upon Jesus to be healed. What are our similarities?

The first similarity is that I am on a journey. Even last night, I had what I would call stress dreams—being late for a plane, can’t get everything packed, etc. There’s a lot going on in my physical world and I’m obviously trying to sort through it and getting on top of it. But am I looking at Jesus and remembering the peace that comes with your provision? Am I remembering to pray in real time and look for your peace. Am I doing the work I need to do each day with your power, authority, and blessing?

Father, help me to look to you, do what is in front of me to do with your power, and absorb the notion that you are calling me to peace. I fail. I am sinful. I am often afraid my sins will be exposed. But your light brings freedom. Be glorified in me through my weakness.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.

Matthew 5:43-45

Dear God, it’s important for me to remember that you love your enemies to, and that includes me. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to sometimes withdraw your presence from someone who is hostile towards you or flaunts unholiness in your face, but you are always there to reach out to your enemies and ready to forgive. You expect no more of me than you are willing to give yourself.

Speaking of enemies, I was at a funeral the other day and we read the 23rd Psalm. “You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies.” How do you feel about that line? It strikes me as something David was communicating to you as he sorted out the fear or need he felt at the time with the fact that you had given him victory over a lot of enemies. But should I pray that? Is that statement true? In light of what Jesus is saying here, could it more rightly said that your table for me, regardless of my enemies’ condition, is enough and I am content with it?

Father, I don’t think I have many enemies, which is good, but as I go through the day I know there are people I don’t like. Help me to love and pray for them. Help me to let go of my need or desire for a nice table and to embrace you for the God who loves me and knows better than I do what good gifts I need as you channel my life to fit into your plan.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

“Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?” Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

John 4:19-24

Dear God, were you bigger than being worshipped in Jerusalem all along? Did the Jews have it wrong?

I wonder what parameters I’ve put on my theology (or I’ve been taught by others) that are just wrong. I’ve told people before that I’m pretty sure that when I get to Heaven I will learn that 90% of my theology was wrong. That’s where your grace comes in. That’s where praying like this and working out my faith with fear and trembling comes in. That’s why I need to pay attention to your still small voice, while being careful that my own wisdom and humanity to pose as your voice and lead me away.

Father, thank you that I’m able to worship you anywhere and anytime. Thank you that you accept my worship. Thank you that you accept my sacrifices. Thank you for forgiving me of the sins I commit and for redeeming me through your sacrifice.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen