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 16:11
Lord, please make known to me the path of life;
fill me with joy in your presence,
and teach me to bring You joy through my life.
Amen.
Reading
This passage is jam-packed with wonderful truths about Jesus. We could pause and marvel at how Jesus is the Son of God (fully divine) and the Son of Man (fully human); or at the deep communion between the Heavenly Father and Jesus, the Son; or at how they co-operate to pursue a single will and purpose; or at how Jesus has been given the power to bring us to eternal life in this life and beyond the grave.
But, remember, we are mining the Gospels for Jesus’ commands (explicit and implicit) this year. We want to become disciples who “obey everything Jesus commanded us” (Matthew 28:20). So let’s focus our attention on that final verse instead:
“I seek not to please myself but Him who sent me.” (v.30)
Jesus made this statement to reiterate the absolute unity of purpose between Himself and the Father. And yet, with one minor adjustment, what a great mission statement this would be for our lives as disciples:
“I seek not to please myself but to please the One I follow.“
The desire to please the LORD should be the guiding principle of every disciple’s life.
Let’s be clear: A disciple’s life is not one of rule-keeping or legalistic obedience. It is a life of love for Jesus, but that love expresses itself in a passionate pursuit of His pleasure.
As sinful human beings our basic tendency is towards self-centredness and living in pursuit of our own pleasure. And being curved inward like this is precisely what kills us spiritually. It is the opposite of love and hence it leads us away from God and the Life He offers us. When we live by obeying our own desires, we soon discover the truth of God’s warning to Adam and Eve, that walking away from Him in self-centredness leads only to spiritual death.
By contrast, Jesus our Lord lived the perfectly selfless Life of Love for God and others.
As our Saviour, Jesus came to save us from death-inducing self-centredness and to give us a different motive for living. He called us to love God with every fibre of our being and He empowers us to live in pursuit of God’s pleasure instead of our own. If we will follow the sound of His call, we will soon discover that it is precisely this call that brings us out of our spiritual grave. As Jesus said: “A time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” (v.25)
Today, let us hear the call of Jesus to live in pursuit of God’s pleasure, and let us follow that call passionately.
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn this declaration over and over in your mind. Keep it in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will live in pursuit of God’s pleasure!
Holy Spirit, show me what brings pleasure to my Lord and Father, and empower me to please Him in everything I do and say today. Amen.
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