WATCHWORD:
31 When Judas was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. 33 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:31-35
For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13
Meditation:
Or Not at All
Pastor Karen Pimpo, wrote in an Our Daily Bread devotional, this bit of interesting history: Ludwig van Beethoven died in 1827. After his death, a hastily handwritten, but never sent, love letter was discovered among Beethoven’s papers. In that letter was the line “My eternally beloved… I can only live either wholly with you or not at all.”
I read that devotional the day after I turned my back on God at a critical time when he was reaching out to me. Without going into detail, I was impatient, and I took matters into my own hands, right at the point where God stepped in, I walked away and ignored His grace. In effect, I was Peter denying my Lord, or worse, I was a Judas!
I read again Beethoven’s line only this time I read it the way I believe God intended it for me: “My eternally beloved, you can only live either wholly with Me or not at all”. Wow! I can only be God’s child by total surrender, complete focus, being attentive to the speaking of the Holy Spirit, or I am not at all.
How frequently do we turn our backs on God, at critical points, at times when we have the opportunity to walk the talk that we are so confidently committed to just moments before. Yet, when his grace is there before me, I was so consumed with my own impatience and failed to see what was there before in an obvious spirit of love and I walked away. Does that have a familiar ring? Some familiar and uncomfortable story in your own life?
We fail to see the close connection between our earthly life, and the will of God — Living the walk that Jesus lays out for us in John 13:34-35: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
In our minds we think that is the highest possible bar and we can’t scale it, we can’t surrender to that degree, we can’t, we can’t, we can’t: we resist before we begin to realize that we can! Yes, we can do it all through Christ who will strengthen us and lead us. May it be so with each of us.
Closing Prayer:
Precious heavenly father please open my heart and my mind to the movement of your Holy Spirit within and to walk the path you have laid out for me so clearly. Help me Lord, help me to be your Child in every moment, in every way. Give me a heart that stays in Your love for me. It’s in your precious Son‘s name we pray. Amen.
