Daily Devotional Week of 1-28-2002

Monday 1-28-02

MAY GOD BE GLORIFIED

By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit...John 15:8 (NKJV)

Man's chief end is to glorify God. John Piper says it follows then that God's chief end is to glorify God. God is worthy of all glory and honor and praise and one of the ways God brings glory to His name is by answering our prayers. But how many people are confident that their prayers will be answered in the affirmative? How many people truly feel so one with God they know without a doubt God hears their prayers and delights to answer them? This is the promise in scripture, a promise to all believers who abide in Christ. God keeps His word without one shadow of turning. If we want our prayers answered, and God does delight to answer our prayers, we must do our part - we must abide in Christ. We must make Christ's desires our desires and make the desire to glorify God our chief desire.

For further study: Colossians 3:16, 1 Kings 8:56-61

Tuesday 1-29-02

HOW THE FATHER LOVES THE SON

As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you...John 15:9

Because we know these words so well, it is simply too easy to let them slip past us without really considering what Jesus is saying here. Jesus says He loves His people with the same incredible, powerful, and wonderful love that His Father has for Him. This should cause us to wonder, how the Father loves the Son.

First, the Father gives generously to His son and with an open hand. The Father shared all His treasured possessions with Jesus. Whatever belongs to the Father also belongs to the Son by God's own decree, including His people.

Second, the Father also shared selflessly His glory with Jesus. For it pleased the Father that in Christ all His fullness should dwell and that He would use Christ to accomplish His desire to have all things reconciled to Himself.

When God shares all that He owns with His Son (which is everything) God has no ulterior motives, because in God there is no deceit. God does not give and share and bless with slanted motives like His people do. And Jesus, in the same way, has loved His church and shared His glory, His kingdom, and His power with His people to accomplish the Father's work and to bring Him glory. When we receive the love of Christ and all the blessings He lavishes on us, we never need worry about His motivations. Meditate today on the purity of the love of God and of Christ.

For further study: John 17:6-7, 10, Colossians 1:19-20

Wednesday 1-30-02

DWELLING IN THE SHELTER OF THE MOST HIGH

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love...John 15:10

The first verse of the hymn "I am His and He is Mine" says, "Loved with everlasting love, led by grace that love to know, gracious Spirit from above, thou hast taught me it is so." Keeping Christ's commandments assures us of knowing His love. James says it a different way, "show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do" (James 2:18b). We are justified by our works in the sense that our works are the evidence of our love for God and Christ.

In the same way Jesus is saying, "if you love me you will keep my commandments, and if you keep my commandments you will remain in relationship with me – that is you will not violate our relationship (John 14:15, John 15:10). When you keep My commandments you will have no doubt of my love for you, because when you keep My commandments you dwell in My love. You see My love is like a house, it is an abode which shelters you." Pray that God would give you the grace and desire to obey His commandments and abide in the shelter of His love.

For further study: Psalm 91:1, Jonah 4:6

Thursday 1-31-02

KNOW JESUS, KNOW PEACE

These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. - John 15:11

Jesus also said in John 16:33 "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Jesus spoke all that He heard from the Father so His people would know His joy and His peace. Unfortunately many Christians do not have peace or joy. Their lives are in turmoil, constantly worrying, arguing, and living in a state of angst. Many rarely experience the riches of the blessings of joy and peace that Christ imparted to us.

In Romans 10, Paul makes the comparison with the church in his day to the Israelites. He tells us that not all the Israelites accepted the good news. Not because they did not hear it, but because Israel was "a disobedient and obstinate people."

If you are not experiencing the peace and joy that Jesus promised to you, there is only one place to look for an answer. Look at the condition of your heart. What have you hardened your heart to? What area of your life have you not yielded in obedience to God? Ponder these things today and repent of your sin and turn to the Lord who is your Peace.

For further study: Hebrews 12:2, Psalm 16:11

Friday 2-1-02

FRUIT THAT REMAINS

You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain...John 15:16

Jesus chose us to bear fruit. Not just any fruit, but fruit that would remain. Jesus is using the same Greek word here for remain that He uses elsewhere for abide. And why should this surprise us. After all, the fruit that we bear for Christ is Christ's. It grew out of the life of Christ that abides in us and so it lives. This fruit has enduring qualities because Jesus is eternal.

Be encouraged, the fruit Jesus is growing on the branches of your life has eternal qualities. His fruit does not fade on the vine but instead is multiplied beyond what we can see or imagine. When I think of fruit that lasts, I think of some of the great saints who have gone before us who continue to impact our lives through their prayers, their sermons, their writings, their hymns, their mercy ministries, and their examples. But you do not have to be a saint of great renown in order to have fruit that lasts. You simply need to be a believer who faithfully abides in the vine of Christ.

For further study: Deuteronomy 6:1-2, Matthew 14:19-21

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