Devotions this week based on the Message: “Hope Comes with Being Loved”.
“…everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15)
Everything?
No doubt there are things Jesus knew as God (after all he was “omniscient”) that he didn’t pass on to his disciples. But what he did was important.
John wrote at the end of his Gospel: (John 20:30-31) Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Jesus taught the things the Father wanted him to teach. He taught all the important things about the kingdom of God and what living as part of the kingdom. He taught all the important things that his followers needed to trust and believe to spend eternity with him.
He didn’t want them to miss out. He taught them because he loved them.
We teach what is important. For those that are raising children or have raised children in the past, you took time to teach your children the best you knew to set up your children for success in relationships, education, life and faith. You shared some of the mistakes you made. You shared some of the lessons you learned. You passed on the best from your parents. Why? Because you love them and want the best for them.
We teach what matters because we love those we teach.
How much more the care and effort God went through to pass on his teaching to us. We take the Bible for granted, but each word that the Spirit of God chose to preserve is a teaching that God wants us to know, believe and live because he loves us.
Each teaching he gives us is an act of love.
All of them? Yep. All of them.
Even the ones that are hard or difficult. Even the ones that seem “narrow-minded” or limits on “fun.” God teaches us these things, not because he made the mistakes and didn’t want us to fall into the same thing, but he truly knows what is best for us and wants to protect us from harm.
What happens when you begin to read the Bible as a painstaking act of love that God has given to you to read, learn, believe, and live…because he loves you?
Perhaps I begin to marvel even more at the gift of grace it is to be loved by God.
Apply: What is a tough teaching of the Bible that you find hard to believe and live? What happens when you view that passage from the perspective, “Jesus taught me this because he loves me. So what blessing does he intend for me to receive from it?”
Prayer: Father, thank you for sending Jesus to teach us everything that was important for our life and salvation. Jesus, thank you for taking time to teach us all the Father gave you and you knew was best for us. Spirit of God, thank you for preserving all this teaching to bless us today! AMEN.