JDL - Direction Nineteen - Personal Devotions - from God to us, not what we do for Him.

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10 (KJV))

We profess in the creeds which we confess that “I” believe. Faith is something that I must have. I cannot believe for someone else, and someone else cannot believe for me. Faith must be personal. Yes, Jesus died for the sins of all people of all places of all times (what we call universal atonement), but more importantly, He died for me (what we call vicarious atonement). Thus, as we look at our own lives, we see the need for our own personal relationship with Jesus. Yes, we need a corporate identity, that is we need to affiliate with a local or even national denomination, and we need a familial identity, that is we need family devotions, but we also need our own time with Jesus.

If you have ever had a close friend, you may have noticed that the friends who are your closest are the ones with whom you spend more time. At the same time, these are the friends you make time to spend with, and so it works both ways. When we fail to spend time with friends, our friendship wains, and when our friendship wains, we tend to spend less time with certain friends. Likewise, we say that Jesus is our best friend, but do we act like it? Do we spend the time with Him that we would with a best friend?

Of course, some of this leads us back to the old admission that we do not do as well as we aught. Certainly we could do better. We are imperfect, even sinful human beings and left to ourselves we would mess up our relationship with Jesus and we do. We betray Him. We betray His trust in us. We fail to spend time with Him, speaking to Him in prayer and listening to Him in His Word.

Thanks be to God that Jesus really, truly is our best friend and that He shows it through His constant looking over, watching over, ruling over us and even and especially interceding for us before the Father in heaven. Jesus is the one who came to do what only a greatest friend would do, give His life for ours. He continues to come to us. He continues to look for us. He continues to reach out for us.

How important our personal relationship with Jesus is can be seen in the fact that we are so important to Him. But notice the direction that this relationship moves. It is always from Him to us. We do not go seeking after Him. As a matter of fact, we often (because of our own sinful human nature) go running away from Him. We fail to spend time with Him. We fail to make the time to spend with Him. We do things we should not be doing, and we do not do the things we should be doing. Really, if Jesus were a regular friend, He would have dumped us a long time ago. For Him it is just not fair. He does all the work in our relationship, and we try to take all the credit.

Again, then, thanks be to God for Jesus and His devotion and friendship to and with us. Thanks be to God that Jesus does everything He can to be a part of our lives. Even when we mess up, which we do daily, He is always there, ready to forgive, ready to welcome us back.

Knowing what we know about how much Jesus loves us, we might well pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to work in us so that we might be better prepared and better able to share in our relationship with Jesus, speaking to Him in prayer and taking the time to listen to Him as He speaks to us through His Word. And His speaking to us through His Word is the way He comes to us, giving us His good gifts and blessings and directing our lives.

Think About
God gives us 365 days in one year, that is 52 weeks, or 12 months. God gives us 7 days a week or 168 hours in one week. How much of that time do we spend doing the things we do? How much of that time do we spend with Jesus?

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for the gift of life and for the time You have given me on this earth. Forgive me when I fail to give You a part of my time, which You have first given to me. Make me ever conscious of spending time with You, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.