This week’s text gives us much to ponder about how the Spirit, the Advocate, the Helper lives with us and within us, wherever we are. We are promised that the Spirit will never leave us and that Christ will come to us. We are never left home alone.
And…
the “because clause” in this text activates something in us that is deeply afraid that if we do not obey or love Jesus perfectly, we will be denied the Father’s love. It creates a huge conundrum in us. Either we try harder to obey so that we earn God’s love or we give up trying and turn away from God. Neither response moves our hearts and bodies towards trusting God’s unconditional love and unending grace.
This is why discernment of God’s presence and action in our lives does not hinge on one isolated line in Scripture. As we seek wisdom and discernment for our lives we need the whole arc of God’s story revealed in Scripture, the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, and the Body of Christ to help guide us towards life and more life.
Bring your self, your real self to the text today. Notice what stirs within you. The Spirit is inviting a conversation with you.
John 14:15-21 (NLT)
“If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. 20 When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
For Reflection and Prayer:
Read or listen to the text being read slowly, three times. Was there a word, a phrase, or an image that stood out as you listened? Linger there awhile with Jesus
What was your inner response to what you heart? Either a felt sense you experienced in your body or an emotion that you noticed? Bring these responses into a conversation with God. You might journal the dialogue that unfolds between you and God.
Rest in any consoling words, pictures, or feelings with God as you near the end of this prayer. Allow God to simply minister to you in these consolations.
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