In Search Of A Better Tomorrow

Wednesday, November 16

Time Alone With God daily devotional

Written by Pastor Phil Stout, JAXNAZ Church

Read: John 14:15-20

15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[a] in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

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Consider: Yesterday we considered the relationship, fellowship and unity inherent in the Trinity. If this is hard for us to comprehend, imagine what it must have been like for Jesus’ first disciples. They were seeing God in the flesh and trying to make sense of it. At one point Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us” (John 14:8). Jesus answered…

“Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me…” (14:9-11)

I always picture Philip’s face and the faces of the other disciples upon hearing this. You know the look. Concentration, confusion, grasping, searching. The brow is furrowed and the eyes are narrowed. They were trying to get it straight in their minds. But Jesus was talking about something much deeper than can be grasped by the mind alone. And as they strained their logic, he added…

“I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (14:20)

Every morning when I pray, I ask God to help me comprehend what it means to have Christ in me and to be in Christ. And with Christ comes the Father. So I’m really trying to comprehend the Trinity—the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—in me, and me in the Trinity.

Too much for the brain alone. So I pray for an additional kind of “knowledge.” I pray that I may be able…

“…to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge…” (Ephesians 3:18-19)

Pray: “Lord, help me to ‘know’ that which ‘surpasses knowledge.’ I’m not asking for increased intelligence. I’m not asking for logical conclusions. I’m asking that you would help me increasingly—day by day and year by year—to know what can only be known by unity with you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”