Knowing God

Today's Reading:
AM - Psalm 69
PM - Psalm 73
Gospel - John 5:30-47

For reflection: How can you use Scripture to cultivate the love of God in you?

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“By myself I can do nothing.”

Those aren’t words you are used to hearing from Jesus. The One who made the seas still, the lame walk and the deaf hear is hardly someone who could say “I can do nothing.”  He is without doubt the most influential and world changing figure ever to step on the planet. We date our calendars from his birth and the world stops to remember his resurrection. 

Yet there are those stubborn words staring at me from my Bible.

The first time I came across them I remember how stunning they were. But in the context, I see Jesus giving me a great truth:  He points me towards dependence on his Father. Throughout his ministry Jesus makes clear that his job is to point mankind to God. Twelve chapters later in John’s Gospel he will say in prayer that eternal life is “Knowing God.”  On the same occasion he tells the disciples that if they have seen him they have seen the Father.  

He came so we could see God.

But even more, He came to show us what dependence on God looks like.  “Co-dependent” is an ugly word in our culture, describing an unhealthy addiction to another person. And being totally dependent is just about as reviled. We want to be independent people who can make our own decisions and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps.

Yet Jesus describes himself as just the opposite:  “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”

It’s those last words that give me my goal:  I want to be so dependent on God that my goal is not to please myself but to please Him. He becomes the center of my world and the heart of all my desires. His directions become my marching orders and his desires become my wants.

Now if that sounds kind of weak and milk-toasty, just remember who promoted that life style:  the most powerful person who ever lived – Jesus Christ.

May God make us more dependent on him this Easter season as we daily seek to BeThe Gift to those whom he places around us.

- Jeff Walling