Prayer
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 51:10-12
Lord, create in me a clean heart and a loyal spirit.
Fill me with Your presence and Your Spirit.
Fill me with the joy of my salvation,
and make me willing to obey You.
Amen.
Reading
What an awesome command we arrive at today. It’s a command loaded with promise:
You must be born again! (v.7)
Jesus was in conversation with Nicodemus, a religious leader who seems to have been attracted to Jesus’ teaching and was curious to know more. Judging by their conversation, it seems apparent that Nicodemus wanted to add Jesus and His teaching to his life. He felt that Jesus and His teaching would enrich his life because Jesus was “a teacher who has come from God” (v.2). But, at the same time, he was also very cautious because Jesus was already highly unpopular with many of Nicodemus’ colleagues.
Jesus’ response was essentially that if Nicodemus wanted what Jesus had for him, he needed to allow Jesus to make him a whole new person. No one can simply add Jesus to their old life. Truly receiving Jesus willl always lead to a transformation that is so complete it is in effect a total rebirth – and it will be impossible to hide. Nobody can be a secret disciple of Jesus. It will always show in the way He transforms us with newness of life and makes us a whole new person.
Only Jesus can cause this rebirth. But we have a crucial part to play because Jesus will not do so unless we surrender to Him and want Him to “rebirth us”. He does not force Himself on anyone. But when we believe in Jesus as v.15-16 says (in the sense of trusting Him enough to surrender completely to His ministry and His Lordship) Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into us and the Spirit recreates us as a new person. Then we are “born again”, “born of the Spirit” and we enter into “eternal life”.
Talk about a command you should really, really want to obey: You must be born again!
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn these declarations over and over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will constantly believe in Him, trust Him and surrender to Him.
- I will receive His ministry of new life every single day.
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming into the world to save me from sin and death and to give me new life. I receive Your new life today. Amen.
Dave's Diary 