John 14:14 Ask anything in my name and I will give it to you.
Today, while in church God showed me this passage and I wrote on the margin of my Bible ‘What if you lived like this were true?’ Sometimes I forget that every word of the Bible is true, and I can walk in that truth and apply it to my life daily. Sometimes I don’t have the faith to believe it is true. It is the meeting of the very depths of my own humanity and the very depths of God’s grace. In my humanity, I don’t have the faith, but by God’s grace I do. In that moment, I was convicted and pushed into a deeper realization of faith, pushed to greater faith.
The funny thing was, we were in Spanish church. I didn’t understand a word the pastor was saying, but I had prayed to God to interpret the message for me. I imagined this would look like me suddenly understanding and speaking Spanish, or myself hearing the pastor in English while he was actually speaking in Spanish. I mean, he’s God and if it happened on the day of Pentecost it can happen again.
Well, that didn’t actually happen. I ended up reading John, and just journaling what the Lord was teaching me in that moment. After the service, I asked a teammate what the service was about. “Greater faith, reckless faith”, was the answer. God did interpret the message for me. It just didn’t look like I thought it would.
How many times does that happen to us? How many times does God answer our prayers, and just because it doesn’t look like we thought it would we don’t see it? It happened to the Jews when Jesus came. The Messiah they were looking for was a warrior. To them, that meant he would come riding a mighty horse and winning battles. Instead Jesus came walking on foot, bringing a word of peace. He won battles; he won the battle over death, the battle against Satan. He was indeed a mighty warrior, but just because it didn’t look like they expected, they didn’t see it.
I don’t want to overlook God’s miracles because I am looking for something specific. I want to see the large miracles and hear the soft whisper. I want to see the Messiah as He lives today, and not overlook Him because I expect Him to be bigger, louder. He is loud, yes, but He is also quiet.
Ask anything in my name and I will give it to you.
Lord, I want to see you as you are. I want to see the quiet parts of you, and the big showy parts of you. I want to see your grace reflected in my own character and I want your eyes to see it with. I want to see myself as you do, and I want to see others as you do. I want to live a life of expectancy; expecting you to show up, and not doubting when you do. I want to believe not just because I have seen, but because the Holy Spirit lives inside me and confirms You. I want conviction, growth, faith and comfort. I want to live with the knowledge that every word you have spoken is true, and reflect that with my actions. I want to continually grow in the truth and knowledge of you. Jesus, I ask all this in Your name, with the faith that You will give it to me.
