Grace and Truth – Part 3
This is my last blog of the “Grace and Truth” series. I’ve thought a lot over the last couple of weeks as to what it is about the book of John that I love so much. When it comes down to it I can’t help but sense God’s overwhelming love through John’s words. I haven’t shared this with too many people but I once had a vision as I was reading one of John’s books in the Bible of John leaning over a wooden desk in a room with very little light penning one of his letters to us. What I remember most was how he was pouring out his heart and I could sense his desire for us to know how much God loves us. I was taken aback and overwhelmed at the same time by the vision especially since I was not used to having visions at that time. John had so much love in his heart.
Later on in my journey, I found myself in a place where I kept telling the Lord “I feel like Peter!” One minute I’m boasting about how much I love the Lord and the next minute its open mouth insert foot. After several of these instances, I heard the Lord say to me “Look at John”. I thought “Huh?” A couple of things immediately stood out to me. First was that John always referred to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23, John 19:26, John 21:7, and John 21:20). Second was that he was the only disciple at the foot of the cross when Jesus was crucified. And lastly, Jesus gave his mother to John to look after. When I began to ask the Lord about these things and the significance of them here is what he showed me.
He pointed out to me that Peter’s focus had been on Peter’s love for the Lord whereas John’s focus was solely on the Lord’s love for him. Did you catch that? John focused on the Lord’s love and Peter focused on his own love. In my own words, John would say “Lord, thank you for loving me” and Peter would say, “I love you Lord”. The Lord then showed me that this was why John was the only disciple at the foot of the cross. He practiced personalizing the love of God. And this is also why even though Jesus had other brothers and sisters, he gave his mother to John. He knew that John would love his mother the way he wanted her to be loved. How precious and beautiful is the love of our Savior!
John did what the writer of Hebrews 12:2 implored us to do; he fixed his eyes on Jesus. Having discovered that I don’t always really know the meaning of a word, I’ve learned to love online dictionaries (Merriam Webster is my favorite) and Strong’s Concordance (found through BibleHub). I looked up the Greek word for “fixing” in Hebrews 12:2 and learned that the word means “to look away from all else”. What the Lord has taught me is to stop looking at my failures, my shortcomings, my mistakes, my errors, how messed up I was because Jesus has already taken care of it. My responsibility as a believer is to do what John did – practice personalizing the love of God. As I began to do this, God began to transform me. I am not the same person I was. By his grace and only by his grace, I am becoming the person he created me to be all along as I practice personalizing his love for me.
As we celebrate Christmas in a few days, may the Lord help us to fix our eyes on the one we are celebrating and help us practice personalizing HIS LOVE for us in the days to come and in the coming year!
