More Than Words

“Good night, God bless you, sweet dreams, and I love you.” Thomas repeats to his baby brother, Timothy. I heard these words nightly as a child. I spoke them to my children and now to their children. My son says them to his daughter and my daughter to her sons. They offer a daily reminder that a good night’s rest and peaceful dreams are a blessing from the Lord. (Psalm 4:8) Even the love I have for each of them comes to me from Christ who loved us first. (I John 4:19) When we abide in Christ, God’s Word incarnate, His Word becomes the most important part of everything we think, say, or do, as Jesus taught. Everything points to God, just as He intends.

“If you remain joined to me and my words remain in you, ask for anything you wish. And it will be done for you.

When you bear a lot of fruit, it brings glory to my Father. It shows that you are my disciples.

Just as the Father has loved me, I have loved you. Now remain in my love.

If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love.

In the same way, I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

I have told you this so that you will have the same joy that I have. I also want your joy to be complete.”

John 15:7-11 NIRV

https://bible.com/bible/110/jhn.15.7-11.NIRV

Immediately following his review of the Ten Commandments given by God, Moses admonished the people to honor God by obeying Him so that they may enjoy long life throughout their generations.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Love him with all your strength.

The commandments I give you today must be in your hearts.

Make sure your children learn them.

Talk about them when you are at home.

Talk about them when you walk along the road.

Speak about them when you go to bed.

And speak about them when you get up.

Write them down and tie them on your hands as a reminder.

Also tie them on your foreheads.

Write them on the doorframes of your houses.

Also write them on your gates.”

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 NIRV

https://bible.com/bible/110/deu.6.5-9.NIRV

Jesus’s disciples were real men with real lives, real jobs, and very real families when Jesus called them. When their paths intersected with Jesus, their direction changed because they followed Him. Peter proved you can never really go back to your old life and find any meaning there. Peter had lived with purpose for three years in Jesus’s wake, but following Jesus’s crucifixion and even after His resurrection, Peter and the others were floundering.

“Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.”

“We’ll come, too,” they all said.

So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night.

At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn’t see who he was. He called out, “Fellows, have you caught any fish?”

“No,” they replied.

Then he said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get some!”

So they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.

Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!”

When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and headed to shore.”

John 21:3-7 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.21.3-7.NLT

“This was the third time Jesus had appeared to his disciples since he had been raised from the dead.”

John 21:14 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.21.14.NLT

The disciples desperately needed a jump start. They needed to remember Who they were representing and Whose power they had learned to rely on when they, like Jesus, healed the sick and preached the coming of the kingdom of God. They needed God’s Spirit to affect the kind of change that only God can accomplish in hearts of flesh. Jesus had been explicit as He commissioned them and us. You will receive power to be my witnesses because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Not to you. Not to me. To Jesus.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.””

Acts of the Apostles 1:8 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/act.1.8.NLT

“Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.

And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.””

Matthew 28:18-20 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.28.18-20.NLT

“But I need something more

For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help!

I realize that I don’t have what it takes.

I can will it, but I can’t do it.

I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway.

My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up.

I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight.

Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

I’ve tried everything and nothing helps.

I’m at the end of my rope.

Is there no one who can do anything for me?

Isn’t that the real question?

The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does.

He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.”

Romans 7:17-25 MSG

https://bible.com/bible/97/rom.7.17-25.MSG

I want to live fully surrendered to Christ, to experience the freedom for which He set me free, to be a bold witness to the gospel, and to overcome by my testimony, yet on a daily basis, I vascilate between calling down fire from heaven on those who do not welcome Jesus and denying Him outright or by my silence. (Luke 9:54, John 18:25)

“Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life.

Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God!

Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.

Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God.

Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God.

That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.”

Romans 8:5-8 MSG

https://bible.com/bible/97/rom.8.5-8.MSG

““I can assure you of this:

If you freely declare in public that I am the Son of Man, the Messiah, then I will freely declare to all the angels of God that you are mine.

But if you publicly pretend that you don’t know me, I will deny you before the angels of God.”

Luke 12:8-9 TPT

https://bible.com/bible/1849/luk.12.8-9.TPT

Your words, Lord Jesus, are Light and Life and Truth. You are the one I want to mirror. I want to reflect Your glory as Moses did when his face literally shown as he descended the mountain from Your presence. He carried Your law in this hands on tablets made of stone. May it be written on my heart which You have created anew in Christ Jesus. I need Your compassion for Your people, Lord. Your love is never ending, never failing, and Your mercies are new every morning. Help me abide, dwelling continually in You through the power of Your Spirit and Your Word.

As the heavens declare Your glory, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

Psalms 19:14 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.19.14.NLT