Be Persuaded That He Is Able - Part 696

Jesus said to His followers, “And this is life eternal that they might know Thee – the only true God and Jesus Christ.” (John 17:3-4) But many today do not know of the promises of Jesus, and HIs desire for each and every one of us to achieve everlasting life. Why is this? For one, many people today have only ‘heard’ of Jesus. 

Unfortunately for them, their collective knowledge of Jesus does not include understanding His overwhelming love for His creation -- that is, that the same God who made us in the beginning loved you and I enough to shed His precious blood on the cross. To become our Saviour. Therefore, in the pursuit of life, individuals instead seek only a miniscule understanding of the Lord God who desires to share in our heart's delights. 

As a consequence, our social fabric misses the most important ingredient for our world. That is, getting to know our Lord God and Saviour personally. As the scriptures state, it is this lack of knowing that constitutes falling short of the glory of God. That in all our endeavours to conform to the ways of this world, we fail to understand the real meaning of eternal life. Indeed, of life itself.

The encounter of Jesus and Nicodemus offers a prime example of the "knowing" that comes with eternal life. Herein, Jesus said, “Ye must be born again.” Of course, we know that Nicodemus already knew from the miracles that Jesus performed that He must be from God. He acknowledges this point in John 3:1-21. But at the same time, Nicodemus was still focused on earthly things. “How can this be?” he asked Jesus. "How can I -- who was born already of a woman be born a second time?"

But as we learn from reading the scriptures, Jesus encourages us to seek Him with all our hearts, with all our souls and with all our minds. Indeed, Jesus said, "Ask and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asks receives, and he that seeks finds, and to him that knocks, it shall be opened." (Luke 11:9-13)

From this, we can be confident that when we ask Jesus into our hearts and pick up our cross and follow HIm -- there is a measure of closeness that comes only from an on-going relationship with Jesus.  The pressing in to Jesus type of knowing that we yearn for in our inner souls. Meditating upon the Word and then willingly doing His will in the days to come.  When we do this, the knowledge of Jesus will transform us.  

We will be clothed in the righteousness that only pressing into Jesus the Good Shepherd can bring. Therefore, if we meditate on Jesus, the blinders are removed. We begin to understand the Shepherd that knows His sheep -- and is likewise known of them. “As the Father knows me, even so know I the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep … one flock and one shepherd.” (John 10:14-18)

Indeed, if we would only know Jesus. If we would only seek Him and know the love of Christ that passes all knowledge and understanding, so that we might be filled with all the fullness of God. The scriptures state: “Unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” (Ephesians 3:19-20)

So in your journey with Jesus, hold fast to the Word. Eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7) Know too in whom you have believed. And be persuaded that He is able to keep that which we have committed unto Him against that day. (II Timothy 1:12-13) Stand in the offering plate.