Category: John

John 17:4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.

Lord, Empty me of myself, of the desire for earthly recognition and accomplishment, of the anger and bitterness that creeps in when I feel unrecognized and unappreciated. Help me.

John 17:7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.

Empty me of myself and fill me with Your love, Your mercy, Your compassion. Help me to seek only to glorify Your name and comfort Your people. Please, Lord. Help me.

John 17:11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.

As I start this new day, new school year, new opportunity, help me to lay my earthly desires, cares, and concerns at Your feet. Help me to humble myself before You. Help me to strive only to glorify Your name and love Your people. Help me, Lord. Amen.

John 17:13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.

Have a blessed day.

John 16:2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.

The terrible things humans do in the name of God…. That’s what comes to mind when I read verse 2. I’m as guilty as everyone else of injustices in God’s name: judgements, anger, bitterness, hate. Jesus forgive me. Help me to love like You do.

John 16:22 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

There are so many paradoxes described in this chapter: grief and joy, hope and despair, support and desolation. Jesus is trying to prepare His disciples, prepare us for the trials of this world: Be careful when you think you are doing the right thing in My name. If it’s not love, it’s not of Me. Hold on in your grief. Joy will come again. Don’t worry that I’m facing trials alone. God is with me. I am with you.

John 16:32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

Lord, Thank You for the reminders, the hope, the encouragement in this chapter. Thank You for understanding what my heart and mind can absorb and endure. Thank You that You will turn my grief into joy, that You are with me, even in trials. Draw me ever closer. Amen.

John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Have a blessed day.

John 15:4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

Years ago, I used to keep an index card at my desk that said, “Abide in Christ.” It was a reminder that I needed to stay rooted and grounded in Christ throughout my day. I feel like I do a pretty fair job of that in the mornings with my coffee and my daily Bible study, but the world’s pull is so strong during the day it’s easy to get sidetracked.

John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

However, my reading this morning reminds me that abiding in Christ means keeping His commandments, chief of which is to love one another as He loves us—fiercely completely, sacrificially, without reservations. I’m not perfect at that by any means, but I definitely think my capacity to love others and my love of others have both increased over the years.

John 15:10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

Lord, I want more than anything to abide in You and keep Your commandments. Thank You for the understanding that maybe I’m on the right path, even though I end up in the ditch sometimes. Help me to abide in You every second of every day. Help me to love Your people, all Your people, as You love me and them—fiercely completely, sacrificially, without reservations. Amen.

John 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

Have a blessed day.

John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.

Verse 1 and verse 27 of John 14 both speak to a peaceful, untroubled heart. What a beautiful image that is. For someone like me—always running through “what if” scenarios, always trying to plan for problems, always worrying about everything—peace is often in short supply. I want an untroubled heart.

John 14:16 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—

Jesus tells the disciples several things in this chapter to shore up their untroubled hearts—He is going to prepare a place for them, He is not leaving them as orphans, He is leaving them an Advocate, a Helper, He is coming back for them. I wonder if it was any easier for the disciples to have untroubled hearts because they heard all of this firsthand? I’m betting it wasn’t.

John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Lord, You want an untroubled heart for me. I want an untroubled heart for myself. You’ve laid out all the reasons why an untroubled heart is mine for the taking. And yet…I still worry and fret, moving far, far away from an untroubled heart. Forgive me. Help me. Draw me closer. Amen.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Have a blessed day.

John 13:5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

Lord, Thank You for helping me to see that I am like Peter and not in a good way. I, too, have trouble accepting, receiving Your love and grace. I feel I need to earn it in some way, to do something to be worthy of it, but that is not Your way. To fully be Your beloved child, I have to be willing to accept being served with the same grace that I accept serving others. That is really hard for me, and I’ve never seen the connection to pride involved here until this moment.

John 13:6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

It’s not lost on me, Lord, that Peter tries to dictate Your sacrificial service even in this supreme act of love by insisting that You wash not only his feet but all of him. I see myself in that action, too, Lord, when I try to tell You how to go about things. I don’t mean to imply conditional obedience or lack of humility, but I can absolutely see how those actions are still trying to maintain control. Forgive me.

John 13:7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

Lord, You’ve been working on my heart in the areas of pride and humility for a long time. Thank You for the deeper level of understanding that I have after today’s reading and studying. Root out all the pride in my heart, Lord, and help me to be only Your humble servant. Amen.

John 13:8-9 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Have a blessed day.

John 12:4-5 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.”

In today’s scripture we see a bit more of the true nature of Judas Iscariot. He objects to Mary’s anointing of Jesus because he, Judas, is a thief, helping himself to the money in the treasury entrusted to him. This, for me, raises all sorts of questions. Jesus knows Judas’s heart. He knows his character. He knows his ultimate betrayal.

John 12:6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

So why does Jesus put Judas in the position to eventually betray Him? Why does He break bread with him, pray with him, trust him? Is there a lesson here about redemption or a reinforcement of the idea that evil can be used to accomplish good? What am I supposed to do with Jesus’s love of Judas, despite the fact that 1. Judas seems an unsavory character and 2. Judas is going to betray Jesus?

John 12:7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.

Lord, I feel like there is something here—in the character of Judas or in his inclusion with the disciples, in Your love of him even though You know Judas will betray You—there is something here that You are trying to show me, trying to help me see, but I don’t know what it is. Help me to understand what You are whispering to my heart. Show me Your wisdom. Help me to glorify You. Amen.

John 12:8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

Have a blessed day.

John 11:1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

Jesus clearly loves Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. He was not withholding healing out of spite or malice or to make Himself look good. He was completing the will of the Father, working in His (the Father’s) time and for His (the Father’s) glory.

John 11:2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.)

Did the sisters understand that Jesus loved them but that He was working in and through the Father’s timing? Were their comments (“if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”) sorrowful? frustrated? accusatory?

John 11:3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

Lord, Grief and pain are so difficult. Thank You for loving us even during the hard times, especially then. Waiting on Your timing can be so painful. Help us to cling to You in love and support during these agonizing times and always. Help us to wait patiently on the glory of the Lord. Amen.

John 11:4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

Have a blessed day.

John 10:1 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.

The Pharisees and religious leaders are all about following the arbitrary rules that they assigned to scripture, the Sabbath, etc. Here, Jesus is reinforcing that, yes, there are rules, but they aren’t yours and they aren’t arbitrary.

John 10:7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.

This scripture also seems to speak to familiarity with the Shepherd. It implies a relationship between sheep and Shepherd, an intentional relationship that is cultivated to the point that the sheep recognize and trust the voice of the Shepherd.

John 10:8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.

Lord, Thank You for the reminder that You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). Thank You for the reminder that I need to cultivate a personal, intentional relationship with You daily. Draw me closer. Amen.

John 10:9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.

Have a blessed day.

John 9:14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath.

I am a rule follower. The Pharisees and religious leaders are also rule followers, rule creators, rule enforcers, but somewhere along the way, creating and enforcing rules became more important to them than the reasons for the rules in the first place. Breaking rules was perceived as being about disrespect for the authority of the rule creators instead of about mercy and compassion for the people.

John 9:16a Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”

For me, today’s scripture seems to have practical applications for my return to work as a new school year always means new rules and routines, new ways of operating and cooperating. I’m not so good with new and with change. I’m rather like the Pharisees, grumbling at Jesus for breaking their precious, sacred Sabbath rules—a comparison and admission that both shocks and saddens me.

John 9:16b …But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.

Lord, As I return to the classroom next week, help me to be merciful and compassionate both to those I work for and those I work with. Help me to enforce necessary rules while still showing mercy, love, and compassion to my fellow human beings. Help me to be more like Jesus. Amen.

John 9:22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.

Have a blessed day.