“My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working… Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these…”
~Jesus (Jn.5:17,19-20)
Share to the group a statement or scripture that resonates with you from today’s reading and a responding prayer…
“What is God’s will?”
John 19-20
This is challenging, yet a comforting message for me. It highlights how we need to adjust to God’s will and stop questioning about His will in our own lives. I found myself constantly asking what His purpose is for me. Because of this, I felt lost and wanted to run away from Him. I thought that I needed to deal with my brokenness on my own and be “ready” for Him. Yet, Matthew 9:13 reminded me that “Jesus calls the sinners, not the righteous”.
As of lately, I’ve been longing for a deep relationship with Jesus and sometimes it can get overwhelming because I don’t know where to start. I need to recognize that He is in control and whatever it is, I need to surrender to Him. I cannot do anything on my own and His love will guide me to bigger and better things.
I pray that I can put my fears and selfish ways aside to focus on Him instead of my own life. I pray that I can understand God’s great love for me and adjust myself to become more like Him and His will.
After having some time to reflect on today’s devotion and reading my teammates, a recurring thought came into my mind: the action of obedience. And although I am far from being obedient like Jesus, areas that I do find encouragement in is my willingness to share about my personal relationship with Christ. I do think that as I grow more that God is really shaping my heart to reflect Christ’s heart for Him. I don’t think I would be able to do something bold if it weren’t for the Spirit to move in me.
Another point that I want to continue reminding myself of is that my focus needs to be on God, and not on my life. I am guilty when it comes to asking God for things over my life rather than having all the attention spent on God. As humans, it’s in our nature to be selfish but if I want to live a life with spiritual freedom I must adjust in the things I seek.
God thank you for speaking these truths into my life. May I continue to choose You even when times get difficult. May I seek what glorifies You so that I can live a purposeful life without having any regrets.
For me it’s the same with Tu. The thing that resonates with me the most is what is God’s will, not what is God’s will for me. This whole time I stuck in a self-centered thinking without realizing that I have not put God in the center. It’s more about if I can see where God is working and join Him. This reminds me of Bumble’s sermon last Sunday when Bumble mentioned about like why covid happened and in a bigger picture, why bad things happened. It’s part of his will and even though it’s bad event, God uses that opportunity to work in people, especially me this past year.
God I pray that I can recognize your plan and what you want to do so that I can be a part of it, to serve your kingdom. Give me the wisdom to see how you work in this world everyday.
I think the two most meaningful takeaways from today’s lesson is realizing that it’s God’s will and not God’s will “for my life” and that God is always at work around me. For the first takeaway, I’ve struggled with the concept of God’s intentions with my life and selfishly presumed to guess what God’s will for my life was. Rather than work on my life, though, the actuality of the situation was that God was doing His thing and I should have been rearranging my life to work towards His goal. This whole time I had been putting the cart before the horse, my life before God’s will, when it should have been the other way around as God’s will is irrespective of my life unless I work it towards His will. This is where the second takeaway comes in as the realization that God is always at work around me should help clue me in on what His will is. The better I become at discerning His work, the better I can shape my life towards His goal and, in turn, better my relationship with Him. Lord, I pray for discernment as I currently go through life ignorant of the plentiful work you do around me. Like an ant moving through the grass unaware of the yardwork performed by the gardner, I do not see the harvest around as I am too focus on living my own life. Help me to place Your will above my own life and to discern Your work so that I can adjust my life to fit Your will. Amen.
From Charlie:
The passage that most resonate with me is John 19-20. I think the lesson reviews a different way to understand this passage that I never considered. Even as I learn to let God take control and guide me, I still have this idea that somehow He is guiding me on a specific path that is for me alone. Somehow he is leading me on my path for His purpose. He may be using me to accomplish something but He’s still weaving my life in some way into His plan. But it seems to me that today lesson, shows a different way to look at this that is much less “me-centric”. God has His purpose. I’m a small part in His plan. My entire life might have a purpose in some small way since God does not waste any of His children but I exist only to serve His purpose. In order to serve God, I have to try to understand what it is He is working on and be ready to do my own part in His work whatever that happens to be. He is sometime very clear in His direction and sometime He just ask us to trust Him and just be ready. I think it is very humbling to see myself in this way but it does make more sense for it to be this way in the face of an all mighty God, we are nothing. But for some reason that only He knows, He still loves and care for each of His creature. I think God is asking me to be less self-centered and to look for my opportunity to do His work when He’s ready for me.
I pray Father that you will reveal to me Your plan so that I may work with You and be able to do my small part in your plan. I am a willing instrument and only pray that I can be useful and serve Your purpose.
I really liked the question “What is God’s will?” instead of “What is God’s will for my life?”. Revising this question really takes the focus off myself and instead fixates my eyes on God. There have been so many times where I ask what is God’s will for me and for the most part, I would have no idea. Today’s reading gave me a new perspective and encourages me to seek God’s will by following the perfect life of Jesus. I, too, need to watch to see what God is doing so that I can join Him.
Heavenly Father, thank You for all that You are and all that You do. You are always at work all around me. I pray that You will open my eyes to recognize You to see and know how You are working. I pray that I will do nothing on my own initiative but rather join you in your ministry.