God with Us
Opening Prayer
God, give me a deeper understanding so that I may know You more. Abide in me.
Read 1 John 5:13–21
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
16 If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. 19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20 We know also 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 by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Mentally list all that Jesus has done for you. Then praise him for each blessing.Woven through these verses is an understanding that you either belong to God or you don’t. Believing in Jesus brings us into life with God (13) and access to God himself (14,15). How do we approach that privilege? Do our prayers reflect God’s generous, selfless love (16)?
Belonging to Jesus means that we are protected from the eternal consequences of our sin; the evil one has no claim on us (18). We will still sin (17), but when we pray for each other (16) we claim the victory over sin that Jesus has already won for us. How might we make our fellowships places of real love where we can be honest about our struggles with sin and support each other to live in Christ?
Continued rebellion against God and his Son (12), however, leads to death (16). It might seem that John is saying we should not pray for unbelievers (17) but I see in his words the pattern of Jesus’ prayer (John 17:20–26). Jesus prayed for his followers to live out the message of God’s love. As they did so, the truth about Jesus would be revealed to unbelieving hearts (20; John 17:20,23,26).
Apply
Ask God to show you how you might support people within your church fellowship.
Closing prayer
Loving Heavenly Father, grow Your love in my life that I might live it out in my family, community and workplace.
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