August
21, 2003
IF
ANYONE LOVES ME HE WILL KEEP MY WORD
"If
anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will
love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word
which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me"
(John 14:23, 24, NKJV).
None
who receive God's word are exempt from difficulty and trial,
but when affliction comes, the true Christian does not become
restless, distrustful, or despondent. Though we cannot see
the outcome of the future, or discern the purpose of God's
providences, we are not to cast away our confidence in God.
Remembering the tender mercies of God, we should cast all
our care upon Him, for He cares for us, and with patience
wait for His guidance.
Christ's
promises are that if we love Him and keep His word, He will
send His Helper, the Holy Spirit, to live with us and be in
us (see John 14:15-18). His promise is to be with us "even
to the end of the age" [world] (Matthew 28:20).
Jesus and the Father both love us and "We
will come to him and make Our home with him" (John
14:23). What promises and what a Presence we have the privilege
to represent.
Jesus
was continually receiving from the Father that He might communicate
to us,"and the word which you hear
is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me" (John
14:24). He lived and thought and prayed not for Himself, but
for others. From hours spent with God He came forth morning
by morning, to bring the light of heaven to men. Daily He
received communication from God to share with His followers.
"The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned,
that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who
is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My
ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God has opened My ear;
and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away" (Isaiah
50:4, 5). This relationship He has with God, He promises to
share with us.
In His
last prayer with His disciples before His crucifixion He prayed,
"I pray for them. I do not pray
for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they
are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and
I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but
these are in the world, and I come to You, Holy Father, keep
through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they
may be one as We are... I do not pray for these alone, but
also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
that they all may be one, as You, Father are in Me, and I
in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may
believe that You sent Me" (John 17:9-11, 20, 21).
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