Skip to main content

Take Aways: John 9-11

Another week has passed and I hope it was a good one for you all. One of my highlights was my son waking up super early and looking for me. He found me in the living room reading my Bible and said he would love to join me for devotions! It was just too cute hearing a four year old say that, and super sweet getting some cuddles while reading the Word - before the day really starts and I have to wrestle him to get any extra cuddles! Here are some of my thoughts while going through a few more chapters in the book of John. There are so many things to talk about in each chapter, but I focused my thoughts on the first things that jumped out at me.

John 9 - God's Purpose in our Weakness
Here we see an amazing miracle of Jesus giving sight to a man who was born blind. The disciples asked Jesus - whose sin caused this man to be born with blindness? Jesus replied - neither; his blindness was meant to fulfill God’s purpose. (verses 2-3) What is confusing for today is whether the answer Jesus gave about sin was only specific to this man or in general for all. Can we see our physical disabilities as uses for God’s purpose too? Whether we should or not, looking at it this way is a better thought experiment than wallowing in frustration and sadness about our inabilities. True, we see this man worshipped Jesus after his healing, but think of how much honor we give God when we can worship him before our healing comes. This miracle tells us to remember who we serve - we serve a miracle-maker. The words of the formerly blind man are poignant - “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.” (verse 31) Worship God now and trust the healing will come.

John 10 - Sheep in One Flock
How wonderful it is to count ourselves as sheep of Jesus! We will always belong to him because Jesus said - no one will take his sheep away from him! What’s curious here is verse 16, where Jesus says there are other sheep not currently in the fold. “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” Regardless of my curiosity about what this means, this passage makes it clear that a goal of Jesus is to have one flock, one church, and be the head of it. This is a good reminder to seek unity within the Christian church and amongst other Christians. It's a good idea to participate in Christian programming, conferences, and other gatherings, where we'd get the opportunity to gather with Christian brothers and sisters from different churches. This will give us a taste of what heaven may look like, and dare I say - please God too.

John 11 - Keep the Faith
In this chapter, we again we hear Jesus say that something seemingly tragic and impossible to remedy will be used for the glory of God and to show that Jesus is from God. (verse 4) Jesus was still working on cultivating the faith of the disciples. Though they’ve witnessed other miracles accomplished by Jesus, their faith still needed to grow to believe that Jesus could do the impossible. This is encouragement for today - to know that God doesn’t require your faith to be absolutely perfect when you come to him. Come as you are and let Jesus cultivate and develop your faith as you faithfully follow his lead - just like his disciples followed and learned. God wants to walk with us and help us grow into strong leaders of faith. What also stood out to me in this chapter, is that the high priest prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation and bring all the children of God together. (verses 50-53) This led to the priests plotting to kill Jesus. The high priest was ultimately correct, even though the priests' plans were evil. This insight gives some encouragement, as tragic as it seems. Even in the most dire of times; even when people act wickedly towards each other, God has an ultimate plan in that chaos that is for his glory and that will draw God’s people together.

Blessings to you all in this next week!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Please share your thoughts and reflections spurred on by this post. :)

Popular posts from this blog

Devotions: John 12-14

Hi there! Here are my thoughts after reading a couple more chapters in John. John 12 : True Worship & Testimony My first thought is about how I show gratitude. Mary was a perfect example for us to copy. For her family, Jesus had brought Lazarus back to life and probably did other things that we do not know. We do know that they were all close. Mary literally poured out her gratitude to Jesus by giving him an expensive and precious gift and by serving Jesus in one of the most humblest of ways- anointing his feet with oil using her “crown of glory”. Her actions remind me of Revelations 4 where it depicts rulers bowing before God and laying their crowns down to him. This was Mary’s way of laying down her crown and honoring Jesus. How do I honor Jesus? What is most precious and valuable to me? How can I lay it before Jesus to show that I am thankful he’s my God? How can I use it to honor him, in private and in public? These questions are worth asking to help bring us to a place of tru
Post a Comment
Read more

Practice Makes Righteous

There were two things that stood out to me in Proverbs 11 . I learned about using discretion and about generosity. Solomon's words show that those who practice these two things are wise. Practice being gracious: Verse 12 : He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace. Verse 13 : A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. Practice giving lavishly: Verse 24 : There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. Verse 25 : The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. Verse 26 : He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it. Last Sunday, my Pastor's teaching was on the Godly principle of giving and tithing. He pointed out that the expectation for us to give is a test tied to a promise. He ta
Post a Comment
Read more

The Expanse

I participated in a Zoom prayer call tonight with other women at my church and at the end I just had that feeling of loveliness. It felt good, it felt connected, and it made me want to connect with God even more. I opened my Bible and read Jeremiah 2:2 .  Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.” My thoughts after reading this was: Lord increase my wonder of You.  When things are brand new we have a strong urge to learn more, seek more, engage more. When the shine wears off, we become complacent and less interested. Maybe it’s because we feel we’ve learned all we need to know. Maybe it’s because we are too comfortable in the now. Maybe it’s because we can’t see the possibility of there being so much more for us to gain.  When it comes to my spirit and You, God, please open my eyes to see the expanse of all that you have for me to experience- i
Post a Comment
Read more