THE BLESSING IN ABIDING BY HIS WORDS

THE BLESSINGS IN ABIDING BY GOD’S WORDS
John 14:23-29

Do we really love God?

And most of us will surely say “I do”. Because Jesus said to His disciples in verse 21 of John 14 “He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me.”

And that is one of the greatest challenges in our lives and in our faith is the challenge of being faithful, obedient, and keeping God’s teaching every day.

Heto yung hamon sa atin sa buhay ay ang hamon ng pananatili at pagsunod.

And I believe that we always struggle in this, how to abide in His Words and show that we truly love God.

Let this reflection once again enlighten and encourage us that even when we struggle every day to remain obedient and faithful to His words, God has promised us an Advocate, a Helper that could help us to remain in Him.

And abiding in His Words will not be in vain because there will always be blessings associated with it.

Today’s topic is “THE BLESSING IN ABIDING GOD’S WORDS”

JESUS COMFORTS HIS DISCIPLES

Chapter 14 of John is a farewell discourse a night before His death. This scene was so emotionally intense as Jesus was talking about His death, about His leaving them.

That is why He started chapter 14 by saying “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many dwelling places or mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.”

Jesus that night was giving them the assurance that wherever He is going, they will go as well. But Thomas asked, “Lord we do not know where you are going, how do we know the way?”

Jesus replied, “I am the way, the truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through me,”

Chapter 14 up to chapter 16 are full of wonderful revelations and teachings that the disciples could not fully grasp at that time.

Jesus understood that the disciples could not yet understand that time the message He wanted to convey to them. That is why He said to them that a Helper will bring to their remembrance all the words that He said.

Jesus on that night intends to deepen their understanding of who He really is, where He is going and what will the future be in verse 29 said: “ Now, I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.”

ABIDE IN HIS WORDS

If we will read the whole Gospel of John, we will notice that the phrase “ If you abide in my words, those who have my commandments” was repeatedly stressed.

Why, because Jesus is trying to make a point that for us to truly express our love to God and to others is for us to be rooted in His Words.

Here are some points that we need to ponder:

1. ABIDE BECAUSE WE LOVE

“We abide in His Words, not for the blessings but because we love.”

The blessings will follow because that is the consequence of loving Him.

In verse 13 “Whatever you ask in My Name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

Love is the fuel that drives us to obey His commandments.

We do it willingly, we obey it freely, and we submit to it fully.

Because doing something that you don’t love is a struggle, but doing it with love, we do it with joy.

I believe that God doesn’t bless us to love Him but because we love Him and He loves us, then we are being blessed.

It is challenging to live daily showing our love for God because it will always be tested.

The more we desire to follow Him, the more resistance we will experience. It attracts a lot of forces to stop us from doing what we desire to do.

But the good thing is that Jesus asked God to send us the Helper to be with us forever (Jn 14: 16). The Holy Spirit, the Helper whom God has given us will bring to our remembrance all the teachings that we learned.

He will download to us the Words that will be the source of our strength, the source of courage and hope in the time that we need.

There is a greater promise that if we abide in His Words, we abide in His love he said in Jn 14: 23 “ If anyone loves Me, he will keep my words and My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode in him.”

If God abides in us, we will bear many fruits (Jn 15:5) for apart from God, we can do nothing.

Like a branch that clings to the vine, anyone who will not abide in Him shall be thrown out and dries up and shall be cast into the fire to be burned.

Abiding in His Words, keeping them, and obeying them gives us the joy, His joy so that our joy shall be full. (Jn 15:11)

2. ABIDE BECAUSE WE TRUST

The disciples may not understand during that discourse but what Jesus required them is their trust.

He said in Jn 14:1 “Believe in God, believe also in me.”

In verse 10 He asked them “Do you not believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The Words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His Works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, otherwise believe because of the works themselves.”

We can truly say that we abide in His words when we trust and believe in His Words even, though we cannot understand them fully.

When He said forgive those who sin against you, give your forgiveness even if it does not yet fully sink in. Because later you will understand why. You will have that peace you missed when you live your life in unforgiveness.

Do it afraid, you follow even if you have that fear to step out from your circumstances.

Like what Jesus said, if you want to follow me, deny yourself and carry your cross. We may not yet understand the cost of following Him, but we do it because we trust in His Words that no one who followed Him shall be forsaken.

Abiding in His Words allows us to trust and because we trust, it gives us peace, peace beyond what the world could give.

Verse 27 said “Peace I leave with you; The peace I give to you, not as the world gives to do, I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

We shall abide in His Words because we have that confidence in Him that He shall supply all our needs.

We have the assurance that our prayers shall be answered as He said in Jn 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.”

3. ABIDE BECAUSE WE EXPERIENCE HIS LOVE

The greatest motivation we can have to abide in His Words is because we experience that unselfish love of God.

Yes, we can say we abide because we love, but we cannot fully rely on ourselves to love due to our limitations and weaknesses.

We can easily forget but God’s love endures forever and that great love we experience from Him will continue to keep our desires burning to abide in His teachings and to His promises.

The transformation of St Peter, St Paul, and Mary of Magdala was fully developed not because they are the ones to love Jesus at the start.

It was the experience of Jesus’ love for them that made them a better people.

It was that uncondemning love that brought them to the best version of themselves.

They became a man and woman who abides in God’s Words because of that experience of God.

Like most of us, even when other people say bad things about us, our friends who don’t believe that we truly change; we continue to follow God’s teachings the best we can be because of our experience with God.

“What will make us amaze is His wonderful grace; He loved us even when we were still in our darkest place”

THE BLESSINGS OF ABIDING BY HIS TEACHING

Abiding in His words is not easy as we speak. The more we go for it, the more the pull we have.

Because the enemy will not just sit and allow us to do it without any sweat. We will be tested, we might be disappointed, but God knows our limitations and weaknesses that He already sent us the Holy Spirit to teach us and bring to our remembrance the Words and promises God had given us.

At the end of these challenges, if we overcome them, we can know that we are truly his disciples if we continue in His Words.

“If you continue in words, then you are truly disciples of Mine; you will know the truth and the truth shall make you free”-Jn 8:31-32

His Words are liberating that by keeping and obeying them, living on them, we can truly know who we are and the amazing gifts it brings to our lives.

We cannot be chained anymore by our fear and unbelief.

We cannot be deceived anymore by the many lies that the world is offering us.

There will be a great transformation in the lives of all of us if we will abide in His Words that bring truth, joy, and blessing beyond compare.

God is always true to His Words and promise.

May your happiness be full,

Mikesendon

DRAWN OUT FOR A REASON

DRAWN OUT FOR A REASON
Exodus 2:1-10

Do we not wonder why sometimes in our life, we pass through a series of stages wherein, we felt uncomfortable because we are taken out of our comfort zone?

There were times we resisted change because we don’t want to adapt to the new situations, a new set of rules, and from where we are already comfortable.

Are we not amazed as well that in our lifetime, we experienced a series of stages in life that brings us to a better, bigger and brighter side of our life?

Life is a journey, it is a series of stages from one to another. It is a process, a transition from one event to another, from one experience to another.

Life stages are constant.

It’s a series of drawn-out. A process that God is shifting us every time whether we like it or not.

THE MOSES STORY

In our text today, we read that Moses was drawn out from the river when he was a baby. Little did he know that God is drawing him out to be transformed to do bigger things for a mission prepared for him by God.

The life of Moses was a series of stages into a life already predestined, already orchestrated, and well planned by God for him.

Little did Moses know that his life was phases of God drawing him out from the womb of her mother to the Hebrew house, from the house to the river, from the river to the Pharaohs’ palace, from the palace to the wilderness, from the wilderness back to his people to drew God’s people to become a mighty nation.

OUR LIFE IS A DRAWN-OUT EXPERIENCE

God in our life is drawing us out every day from our fear, from our hidings, from our comfort zones.

God is calling us out from our sins, from the raven we have known.

Even the life of Joseph was a series of drawn-out experiences.

He was drawn out from his house to be thrown inside the pit, he was drawn out of the pit to be a slave in Potiphar’s house, from the Potiphar’s house he was drawn out to be thrown inside the prison but one day, he was drawn out from the prison to be seated inside the palace. In life, sometimes when we are being taken out from our misery, from our sufferings, from our hardships; we expect that the next stage of our life is good, something that we could forget our pain and agony.

What if the result is opposite to what we expected?

Like Joseph, when he was drawn out from the pit, he expected that he will be freed but he was sold to be a slave.

He serves well in the Potiphar’s house but in return, he was wrongly accused and thrown inside the prison.

But God drawing us out to something better. He draws us out to be placed in a stage where He could prepare us for a bigger mission, to handle bigger responsibility.

Moses was drawn out to be trained, to be equipped, to work out his character to become a good leader, be familiar with and survive with the terrain of the desert.

Moses was drawn out into the wilderness to draw out his people from the bondage of the Egyptians.

1. DRAWN OUT FOR A BIGGER MISSION

Do you know that God is preparing us for something big?

If we will just reflect on our life, God incubates us to become big.

The people of Israel were only seventy when they went to Egypt, but God incubates them for hundreds of years to become a big and mighty nation of God.

Anything alive grows. It started from a small form, but the time will come, it will be bigger when you draw them out.

Just imagine how tiny creatures were when we were in our mother’s womb, when it was time to get out, we were drawn out larger than it was.

We all are undergone an incubation period.

All our experiences are a series of stages preparing us to become more experienced and successful.

We become more skillful and proficient not only by acquiring knowledge but by having the necessary experience.

Experience is a good teacher.

We have a mission and our mission is bigger than we thought. David was drawn from being a shepherd to doing a bigger mission. To be the next king.

God has drawn you from your place to be here in UAE because you have a mission for your family.

God has drawn you out from your ministry to be a leader because the mission set before you is bigger than what you thought.

Don’t think about your condition, your situation because God is about to shift you to your destiny.

NEVER BE AFRAID TO BE DRAWN OUT.

2. DRAWN OUT TO FLY HIGH

Just imagine a caterpillar inside a cocoon. When the time has come, it must come out and be drawn out because it cannot stay inside for long. It will find its way to break the small space so that it could come out and be free.

The butterfly cannot be able to have its wings fly unless it was drawn out from its cocoon.

Our life may be like inside the trap of a dark cocoon. We cannot see any rays of hope but while we are in a situation that is difficult to bear, just think that God will draw us out.

Never be tired of believing that someday, you will be flying high.

Always sing your belief “I believe I can fly..”

Our life is not always in the cocoon stage because that is just temporary.

There will always be time for everything to work in season.

Since everything is temporary, be prepared to be drawn out.

Losing a job is temporary.

Being sick is just temporary.

Our comfort zone is not our destiny because God’s promise is not in our shelter. Be prepared to be shifted.

3. DRAWN OUT TO HAVE A NAME

In our text, the child was born but without a name.

He was unknown and nobody knew him.

He had no influence, he had no name.

He was just a baby born to an ordinary Hebrew family.

The baby was named Moses which means draw out from the water.

Isn’t it that God has drawn us out to give us a name?

To restore our dignity and to reclaim the sonship we have in God. We are not known, we don’t have influence, but God is drawing us out to give us the importance and to redeem our worth.

For He rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves-Colossians 1:13

God has taken us out from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of light.

God has drawn us out to give us names that represent who we are and the mission that we should accomplish.

You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas (which is translated Peter). —John 1:42

Remember how God drew out Saul from his old belief to become a new disciple of God defending the faith. He was given a new name, from Saul to Paul.

Our life is drawn out for a reason, to be a better person whom God prepare for a bigger mission.

May your happiness be full,

Mikesendon

Catching Nothing May Just Be Another Learning

CATCHING NOTHING MAY JUST BE ANOTHER LEARNING
John 21:1-19

HE SAID, “THROW YOUR NET ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BOAT AND YOU WILL FIND SOME”. WHEN THEY DID, THEY WERE UNABLE TO HAUL THE NET IN BECAUSE OF THE LARGE NUMBER OF FISH.- JOHN 21:6

It is not surprising that most of us easily backed out when we don’t figure out what is really happening.

And even if we have that understanding of what is going on, we are still puzzled and our limited minds cannot grasp the reality of the situation because at the back of our minds we have still a lot of questions.

Like the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Peter and the rest of the disciples have learned valuable lessons about Jesus’ resurrection.

That life does not end even when you see it falling. Even when you witness it that the door is closed.

When we are not given any more options, we need to listen to His Words that give direction because God knows the best solution.

Let us again dive deep into the story of the rest of the disciples and understand that “Caught Nothing does not mean the End of the Game”

PUZZLED AND TROUBLED

The disciples have not yet overcome and fully grasp what had happened with the Lord even when He already appeared to them the first time.

They spent almost three years being with the Lord and Jesus after His resurrection had nowhere to be found and no idea when He will appear again, what to do next, and what was the plan.

Their life for the past years revolves around Jesus’ ministry of healing the sick, casting out demons, hearing preaching, and witnessing miracles day by day.

But for now, the ministry is under watch, no more preaching, no more teachings, miracles cease, those who followed Jesus were hiding and some returned back to their normal life wondering what happened.

They may think that their faith in Jesus made a mess in their lives because they were identified with Jesus and now they were on the watch list.

Their movement became limited.

Still puzzled about what to do, they may be asking themselves “What shall we do now?”

Even in our lives, under painful events and tragic experiences; we have the same question “What shall we do now?

I have so many loans in the bank and I cannot make things better, what shall I do now.
I am the talk of the town and my friends left me, what shall I do now?
I am now fifty, and not yet ready to retire.

“WHAT SHALL WE DO NOW?”

With this in mind, we console ourselves and return back to our comfort zone.

To where we fit and are accepted. To where we are best. To a life of mediocrity.

This may be the same question of Peter and the other disciples.

Peter demonstrate this scenario like all of us, so he returned where he came from.

Fishing.

For some people, fishing is a hobby and to be one with nature. It’s good for deep thinkers.

But for Peter, he returned to what he loved and was familiar with, fishing!

Catching fish was his expertise. He knows the sea, and the timing and this made him successful.

“You don’t know what to do now? I’m going fishing.”

There was no doubt that even his fellow disciples when he asked them to go fishing, all followed him.

When our expectation fails us, isn’t that many of us settle for less?

Because we don’t want to be hurt and to fail anymore

WHAT VALUABLE LESSONS LEARNED FROM DISCIPLE’S EXPERIENCE

1. WE CAN NOT GO BACK WHEN GOD SHUTS THE DOOR

This is what we need to know, sometimes God closes more doors than he opens.

He shuts more access so that we could get to the right door that leads us where to go. To our destiny where He wanted us to be.

Like Peter and the disciples, we grab our old boats, we use the old nets, we hang with old friends, and we do the old things.

We return back where we fit, where we used to be.

But when we return back to where we fit, we cannot fit there anymore.

Caterpillar cannot go back to where he came.

Chicken cannot go back to its shells again.

Because when we left everything to serve God, there should be no turning back.

The skills we had acquired before should not be used to do what we usually did because God will be using that skills in a different form.

From fishing fish, they become fishers of men.

We should not be disappointed by many companies that close their door for us because there is one prepared for you with your acquired skills to be used to a better position.

“Kapag pinto ay kanyang sinarhan hindi dahil sa wala ka nang babalikan kundi para buksan ang pinto na mas mainam kesa sa iyong pinanggalingan”

2. ADMIT THAT NOTHING IS WORKING

The problem with most of us is that we rely on our ability to do, to accomplish something. We brag on our expertise.

Like Peter might say to them, “You don’t know what to do? Ok, come with me because I am good at this. I know this going to work”

But what you will do if the things you know really work don’t work?

God shuts doors in our face we can’t go back to where we came from.

Being a Christian, there is no turning back because the mold that we usually fit will not fit us anymore.

“I know this man, this is where I was good at.”

So they cast the net but take time, some more time, and more time.

But seems the fishes were sleeping or on holiday somewhere because none of them is touching the net.

Peter at this time might be feeling red already and in excuse might say “By this time there should be fish already”.

So they waited for some more time but there were no fish.

Peter at this time might be feeling red already and in excuse might say “By this time there should be fish already”.

How many of us expecting something and until now waiting for it to come?

“By this time, I should be with my family already in the Philippines but I’m not yet ready to retire”.

Then you pull the net up, “Surely by now I should have already a husband…”

Pulling it up once again, “Surely bow now I should have already children”

Surely by now, I should have already gone home for good.

But the Bible says they had CAUGHT NOTHING.

We need to admit that nothing is working.

Peter doesn’t know that on that night, God shut the door for him.

No matter how good and intelligent we are, how gorgeous and beautiful you are when He shuts the door, we can do anything.

God puts us in a position to realize that without Him we can’t do anything.

God will humble us.

We need to admit that nothing is working.

Our skills are of no use until we humble ourselves.

“Kung ginawa na natin ang lahat at hindi umuubra, huwag isipin na mahina ka. Minsan kailangang huminto at sa Diyos tumingala para humingi ng kanyang gabay at awa.”

3. CAST YOUR NET TO THE RIGHT SPOT

We must be aware of any abnormal failures.

We should always suspect unusual failures because it means that there is something spiritual going on.

Uncommon letdowns mean God is talking to you somewhere.

You can call for help from anybody but when He slams the door, no one can help you.

And when they admit that they can do anything, Jesus said to them “cast your net on the right side.”

Take note that it’s the same boat, the same net, it’s on the same lake, only a change of sides.

The blessing comes not because of the new net or a more sturdy boat or a new lake but the difference lies in the obedience to a Word of Direction.

It is not enough that you have your skills, that you have the right equipment that you have the right support unless you hit the right spot, we will not make it.

Because when God speaks in our life, He gives us Words of direction.

“Ang biyaya ay hindi sa pagandahan ng bangka o pagalingan ng pangingisda; ang pagpapala ay matatamasa kung inihahagis ang lambat na may pagtitiwala”

May we discern & learn from everything that is happening,

Mikesendon

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