Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father reveal us to ourselves today. Father, show us how we have attempted to use your Son Jesus for our own purposes, instead of yours. In the name of Jesus, convict us of the ways in which we have tried to manipulate His name and reputation, and call us to repent! Thank you, Father, for your eagerness to forgive us. May we daily rest in your daily grace. Amen.
Your Morning Song: "Hold Me Jesus" by Rich Mullins
Your Morning Scripture: John 6:14-15
After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
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Jesus had just fed the 5,000 with only a few loaves of bread and a few fish. And the people there rightly recognized that something amazing, something divine had happened. But they did not recognize Jesus as Himself, as the Messiah, the Son of God. Instead they thought him only a prophet, and wanted to make him only a king.
Do we ever make this mistake of misunderstanding Jesus's identity and purpose? The people of Israel wanted a king to defeat Rome, but instead Jesus came as a suffering servant to defeat sin and death.
How do we see Jesus? Do we seem Him as accomplishing something on our terms for our purposes? Or do we see Him as the Son of God, who rightly forms and molds our purposes to His own?
It is any easy and common mistake we make. It is a weakness of our fallen, sinful flesh. Though the power of sin is defeated, it's presence yet remains. And so we will struggle to see Jesus rightly. We must struggle to see Him rightly. We must.
Because if we do not intentionally submit ourselves to our Lord and Savior Jesus, we will, by the default of our flesh, submit Him to us.
And that is not how this works. No matter how hard we try, we cannot make Him king on our terms. And if we do try, we will only fail. And we will not know Him. And He will not know us.
No matter how many Sunday morning boxes we check. No matter how many times we cry out, "Lord! Lord!"
We know Jesus on His terms. Or not at all.
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