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 simple prayer based on Psalm 116:1-2:
I love You, Lord.
Hear me as I cry for mercy.
Turn Your ear to me,
and I will call on You as long as I live.
Amen.
Reading
We spent last week in John 10 and Jesus’ metaphor of the Good Shepherd and His sheep. Most of this week we’ll be taking a slow walk through the raising of Lazarus in John 11.
When Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus from Bethany (in Judea) that His friend Lazarus was ill, Jesus waited two days and then called His disciples together and told them to get ready to go with Him to see Lazarus in Judea. When they resisted, suggesting that it was foolish to go there because His life was in danger in Judea, Jesus replied:
9 … ‘Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the day-time will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.’
Jesus is talking about the absolute freedom that comes when one is single-minded in one’s pursuit of God’s will. I believe that when He spoke of “walking in the daytime/light” Jesus meant being guided solely by one’s desire to obey the will of God (as Jesus was). Then one is not caught in two minds, vacillating between two priorities or two possibilities.
If Jesus had been just as concerned about His own safety as He was about doing the Father’s will, He would have been left “stumbling around in the dark”. He would have been stuck in fear and indecision, and He would never have arrived in Judea.
Jesus loved Lazarus, Mary and Martha, but He loved His Father more than anything or anyone. So, when the Father told Him to wait, He waited. And when the Father told Him to go, He went, even though He knew full well that to return to Judea would be the first step on His final road to the Cross. Jesus single-mindedly walked in the light of His love for His Father, and He walked in the light of God’s will.
Years later, the apostle Paul wrote, in Ephesians 5:8-10: “Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.“
When we know what pleases the Lord (i.e., His will), and we have made up our minds only ever to do what we know is pleasing to Him, we are set free, and this world’s darkness has no more power to hold us back!
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 do only what is pleasing to the Lord.
Holy Spirit, please empower me to subject all my other concerns, desires and interests to the highest purpose of pleasing the Heavenly Father in all things. Amen.
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