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 119:105 & 112.
Lord, may Your word truly be a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path;
and incline my heart to live out Your will
every day of my life.
Amen.
Reading
Our reading for today gives a concise description of Christian discipleship.
Being a disciple of Jesus always begins with faith. It begins with “believing in Jesus”, as these particular Jews had done (8:31). And, as we’ve seen so many times this year, this is not simply an intellectual belief about Jesus, it is believing in Him in the sense of trusting Him enough to entrust our lives to Him.
That level of trust is revealed in the next statement Jesus made too:
“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.”
What does it mean to abide in Jesus’ word?
It means being a diligent reader and student of the Bible, who searches for the Lord’s will on its pages and exercises serious thought and discernment to applying that truth to one’s life. And then, once one has a sense of His will, being a disciple means putting His will into practice.
Being a disciple means developing a constant attitude of listening for the still, small voice of Jesus in our inner being as we go through our day. This might be a gentle whisper in our spirit, or a sudden, clear thought or impression about His will. It might be a Biblical truth brought to mind by the Holy Spirit at just the right moment, or a twinge of conscience.
And then, being a disciple means adjusting and adapting one’s behaviour to remain in step with the word one has received from the Lord – through reading, studying, listening and applying that word to one’s life.
It is then precisely in the practical application of His word that His promise comes to pass:
“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Knowing the truth about the will of Jesus and being fundamentally committed to doing it, sets us free from so much. It sets us free from the power of our selfish desires. It sets us free from fear. It sets us free from the power of other people’s opinions, and hence from the power of manipulation. H.G. Wells once wrote of the danger of other people’s voices becoming louder in our minds than the voice of the Lord. But a disciple has conquered the voices of others by amplifying the voice of Jesus.
May you experience the true freedom of true discipleship today!
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 entrust my everyday life to Jesus’ Lordship.
- I will abide in His word and keep my ear constantly attuned to His gentle whisper.
- I will adjust my behaviour to stay in step with Him.
Holy Spirit, please enable me to learn the will of Jesus from diligent study of the pages of the Bible and from attentiveness to His gentle whisper. Holy Spirit, empower me to trust Him completely and to stay in step with Him throughout today. Amen.
Leave a Reply