This morning
these three scriptures about eternal life came together in a very uplifting and
encouraging way.
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John 17:3
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I John 5:20
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I John 5:13-15
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“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
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And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us
understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is
true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
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I write these things to you who believe in the name of the
Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the
confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his
will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know
that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
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The thoughts
that wove together this morning were these:
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John 17:3
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I John 5:20
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I John 5:13-15
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Eternal life is to know the Triune God.
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Jesus is eternal life.
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Knowing that we have eternal life gives us confidence in
prayer.
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I believe
that when the child of God spends time in the Scriptures, meditating upon the
breathed-out words of God,[1] we
are in an immediate, experiential, personal relationship with God. The life we
have in Jesus Christ is defined as knowing God. Jesus himself is our eternal
life, so if we have eternal life we have Jesus. We are to picture our relationship
with God as the Father and the Son coming and making their home in us.[2] We
are to read Scripture with a mind to hearing what the Spirit is saying to us.[3] Jesus’
sheep hear his voice.[4]
Our life in Christ is described as being led by the Spirit,[5] walking
in the Spirit,[6]
and keeping in step with the Spirit.[7]
All that to
say that I take it very personally when I am facing something in my life that
makes me feel like Moses explaining to God why he was mistaken to expect so
much from him,[8]
and God saturates my heart and mind with his word in an undeniable and personal
way. In the midst of fears and insecurities, God makes very clear that, if I
have the eternal life that is knowing God, and having Jesus Christ, then I also
have confidence to pray for whatever is according to his will, and he will both
hear and answer my prayer.
I look back
at the last week of meditating on Scriptures about eternal life, and the
personal dynamic of this life as a relationship of knowing God, and see that
God is giving me confidence in prayer by giving me connection to him. If I can
receive this eternal life as a little child who knows he is absolutely and
eternally secure in love relationship with the most powerful and kind and
gracious father, then I can draw near to my Father in sincere faith, knowing he
fully accepts me in the Beloved, that my standing with him is as secure as Jesus’
standing with the Father, and that God will hear and answer me as I pray.
It does not
bother me that the central condition to answered prayer is praying according to
the will of God. I know that my Father will hear and answer this prayer if I am
praying out of a correct understanding of his will, and he will correct me in
my praying if I misunderstand or misapply his will. I can be sure that, if I
keep praying out of my love relationship of knowing God, he will make whatever
adjustments in me, or others, or circumstances, that result in his will being
done on earth as it is done in heaven.[9]
And this
applies to that scary thing I am facing that is not scary to God my Father. I’m
not done praying about my own faith-filled and faithful confidence in this
regard. I just wanted to share testimony of how God speaks to his children so
clearly that we can apply whatever he is speaking about now to whatever we are
facing. We can even pray about the fears and insecurities that are in the way,
and he will answer those prayers according to his good, acceptable, and perfect,
will.[10]
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
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