From Praying the Names of Jesus Week Eleven, Day Three
The Name
Though God has always revealed himself in some way, the incarnation is the clearest, most compelling revelation of who God is — of his holiness, love, and power. Because Jesus is one with the Father, he is uniquely able to communicate God's heart and mind. As Logos, or "the Word," everything about Jesus — his teaching, miracles, suffering, death, and resurrection — speaks to us of God. Our destiny depends on how well we listen. Will we believe, or will we turn a deaf ear to the message of God's love? When you pray to Jesus as the Word, you are praying to the One whose voice calls us from death to life and from darkness to light.
Key Scripture
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. >John 1:14
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Wednesday
Praying the Name
Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. John 5:24-26
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. >Colossians 3:16
Reflect On: John 5:24-26.
Praise God: For opening your ears to his Word.
Offer Thanks: For all the ways God has spoken through Jesus.
Confess: Any heedlessness of God's Word.
Ask God: To help you hide his Word in your heart.
I have never been good at memorizing Scripture. I had a friend who used to commit entire books of the Bible to memory while I struggled to memorize one short psalm. Once, when I was thirty-five, I made the mistake of remarking to an elderly woman that I was too old to memorize Scripture. "Nonsense," was her quick comeback. "I didn't start memorizing Bible passages until I was sixty-five." Since she knew an awful lot of them by heart, my handy excuse was pretty quickly demolished.
Surely even the least mnemonically gifted among us (that's me) could memorize a few brief Scripture passages, committing to memory some of the most powerful words ever spoken. Here's one to start with:
"A time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live" (John 5:25).
This assurance is given to us by Jesus, the last, most perfect Word of God, who tells us that if you hear his Word and believe in the Father who sent him, there is nothing you cannot survive — no tragedy, financial crisis, emotional problem, illness, betrayal, disappointment, or accident. Nothing can ever tear you away from Christ. Even death, the most final of all calamities, cannot destroy your hope, because Jesus, the all-powerful Word of God, assures you that he will call you out of your grave. His is the voice that spoke the world into being, that healed the sick and delivered those in torment. And his is the voice that you will certainly hear on the very last day calling your name. Today, as you ponder this promise of Jesus, try committing John 5:24-26 to memory. As you do, pray for faith and for the grace to let the truth sink in so that it becomes a source of joy, strengthening you in the midst of life's ever-present challenges.
For more from Ann Spangler, please visit her blogspot on Christianity.com. And be sure to check out Ann's newest books on AnnSpangler.com.
Meet your spiritual ancestors as they really were: Less Than Perfect: Broken Men and Women of the Bible and What We Can Learn from Them.
