93 BEING SURE F O O T ================================
- H O L D
READING
93 BEING SURE
PRAY Look at the description of God’s love in Psalm 57:10. Give thanks for it. —————————————————————- READ 1 John 5:1-21. —————————————————————- THINK Can you find a promise or a warning in this reading? —————————————————————- FOCUS Probably some of the false teachers claimed that ‘the Christ’ was a divine spirit that descended upon the human Jesus at his baptism in Jordan and left him again before his crucifixion. Not so, says John. This ‘abbreviated’ Christ is not the Lord of the Christians. Authentic faith rests in a Jesus whose humanity and deity were united, even in the agony of the cross. John’s chief purpose in this letter has been to reassure true Christians of their secure place in Christ. CONFIDENT OF HEAVEN (13). Weak faith is still saving faith. Confidence about going to heaven is not presumptuous if it is based on John’s test (see 2:3, 3:10, 3:18-19, 4:13, 4:15). CONFIDENT IN PRAYER (14-15). Notice that condition ‘according to his will’. Prayer is not a method of getting God to do what we want, but rather of discovering what HE wants. If Jesus could be totally honest in Gethsemane (Luke 22:42), we can be sure that he wants the same honesty from us. CONFIDENT OF MERCY (16-18). Other Christians may sometimes disappoint us by their failure to live according to their words. But we must not quickly write off someone as a hypocrite. While hope of repentance remains, we must pray and care. CONFIDENT OF THE FACTS (19-21). In a broken world, we must not be surprised if our faith is tested. Christians are a colony of heaven in an empire of demonic influence. We must not give in to defeatism. —————————————————————-
PRAY Ask God to help you to be more confident and sure of your faith.