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 Isaiah 45:22
Lord You have spoken:
“Look to me and be saved,
all you ends of the earth;
for I am God, and there is no other.”
Right now I look to You for Your word of salvation.
Speak to me, Lord. Amen.
Reading
For me, the commands Jesus gives in this passage bring to mind an encounter between a drowning person and a lifesaver. As the lifesaver reaches the person, they are likely to reassure the drowning person that they are there to save them, and then to give a series of commands like, “Don’t panic”, “Stop struggling”, “Trust me! Listen to me and I’ll get you safely to land”, “Hold onto the buoy”, “Turn on your back”.
Obeying these commands will position the drowning person to be rescued. Disobeying them will mean that, no matter how competent the lifesaver is, the victim won’t be saved.
In a very similar vein, Jesus commands spiritually dead and dying people,
“Look to Me … Come to Me … Believe in Me !”
If we are to receive spiritual life from Jesus constantly, we need to pay close attention to Him daily (“look to Me”). We need to “come to Him” by praying, listening for His voice, and searching the Bible for His guidance and direction. Ultimately we need to “believe in Him” by trusting Him enough to entrust our entire lives (our everyday thoughts, feelings, actions, conversations, and every other aspect of our lives) to Him as our Saviour and King.
Like a drowning person entrusting themselves to the lifesaver, listening to their instructions and obeying them in order to be saved, we need to entrust our lives to Jesus, listen to Him and obey His instructions so that He may lead us from death to life forever!
Today, will you look to Jesus, come to Jesus, and entrust yourself to Jesus?
I pray we will all have the grace to do just that. And if we will … we will be rescued, saved, and brought into the fullness of the New Life that Jesus came to give us.
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 turn my spiritual eyes and ears towards Jesus throughout the day.
- I will listen to His voice and His instructions.
- I will trust Him enough to obey.
Lord Jesus, I look to You. Please take my hand and lead me through this world of darkness, into the daily experience of Your Kingdom of Light. Amen.
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