John 8:54-55 -- Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word.
After talking with the Lord this morning in prayer, we moved back into this intense conversation between Jesus and the religious leaders/teachers.
For most of my adult life I struggled with confrontation. I was an expert at avoiding it and burying it when necessary. I'd become so good I didn't even realize it was a thing in my life until the Lord began dealing with it in 2018. I mention this because in this chapter alone Jesus has had to handle not just confrontation, but confrontation with a group of angry, deceitful, murderous, religious leaders/rulers/teachers. That is a level of confrontation most of us have never known in our lives.
We saw yesterday the wooden religious thought they'd finally found their "GOTCHA" moment by twisting what Jesus said. They were now, not only accusing Him of being demon possessed, but using what He said as proof, after deceitfully twisting His words around of course.
Stop and think about this for a moment. These people wanted to arrest and kill Jesus and were attempting to trap Him through conversation and questions. There was far more on the line than just losing an argument. This was life and death. Most people, given the gravity of things, would walk away, exercise their right to remain silent, plead the fifth, whatever… but not Jesus.
Jesus doesn't avoid this confrontation, even knowing full well their intent is to kill Him. He boldly presses forward. What jumped out at me in today's verses were these three things:
"It is my Father who glorifies me"
"I know Him."
"I keep His word."
Jesus stood firmly on one thing repeatedly, His Father God. Jesus only did what He saw and heard from God the Father. He held fast and abided in His Father's word, His Father's will, His Father's direction, His Father's actions, everything He stood for, everything He did, pointed to and came from God the Father.
Christian, do you see the unshakeable boldness and strength that comes from abiding in the Lord, in His Word, in prayer, in walking with Him every day, in knowing Him, in knowing who He is?
This doesn't come from going to church on Sunday to hear a 30 min sermon, then going home and living life like usual. It doesn't come from reading a 3 min devotional on the bible app. It doesn't come through religious head knowledge or rituals, we see these highly educated, life devoted, religious teachers, didn't know God and because of it they didn't know Jesus.
It takes more than checking religious boxes and memorizing things. It takes KNOWING THAT YOU KNOW Jesus! It takes KNOWING Him and His Word and His heart and His character and His will... and you can't know someone if you don't spend time with them, period. You can know of them, but you will not truly know them.
To wrap up my quiet time the Lord brought me over to 1 Samuel 17. Beloved, read these versus below from when David went to confront Goliath and ask yourself this:
Did David say and do these things from religious checklists, rituals, head knowledge, and going to church/temple once a week OR was he able to stand up, say and do these things because he KNEW who God was and walked with Him, talked with Him, stood unshakably upon His every word?
1 Samuel 17:37 -- And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”
1 Samuel 17:45-47 -- Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.”
Don't take my word on anything, be the Berean and get into your Bible. Let God show you!
You are loved. You are prayed over. You are not alone.
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