There are some verses that I just don't understand. This is one of them. I read it but do not comprehend it. I know it is refering to the power of the Trinity, which I completely accept as true, yet I cannot picture it. What exactly was it like for Jesus, to be fully man and fully God? Why did Jesus have to "see" what the Father was doing? Didn't He already know what His Father was up to?
The original Greek of "see" translates, "to look, see, take care, watch, be on the look out," and in this particular verse it means, "to see, observe, look at...literally the activity of the eyes."* That only confirms my bewilderment at the implications of this verse. Jesus not only did the Father's will, but He watched His Father closely to see what that will was. As the verse declares, Jesus could do nothing by himself, but only what the Father was doing.
How does this apply to us? According to Henry Blackaby, author of Experiencing God, we need to follow Jesus' example by keeping our eyes and focus on God to watch for His work in our lives, and then join Him in that work. Blackaby says,
"You need to have your life radically oriented to God. The most difficult thing you will ever have to do is deny self, take up the will of God, and follow after Him. The most difficult part of your relationship with God is being God-centered. If you were to record a whole day in your life you might find that your prayers, your attitudes, your thoughts, everything about that day is radically self-centered. You may not be seeing things from God's perspective. You may try to explain to God what your perspective is. When He becomes the Lord of your life, He alone has the right to be...Even if I don't fully understand this verse from John 5, Blackaby offers application that is worth my attention. This week, I'm going to seriously consider what is my Focus, who is my Initiator, and who is sitting in the Director's chair.
--> the Focus in your life
--> the Initiator in your life
--> the Director of your life
This is what is means for Him to be Lord." (p. 99)
Will you join me in looking at your life, too? I'd love to hear your thoughts about this verse, as we seek to understand and apply Scripture together.
Heavenly Father, I pray the Holy Spirit would open our eyes, hearts, and minds to the reality of what we are watching. Lord, fix our eyes on you alone! In Jesus' Name, Amen.
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8 Comments:
Excellent post and I need to add that book to my library! Lol
The most difficult part of your relationship with God is being God-centered.
That is SO true...We live in a world where we told it's okay to live as we want, do what we want and feel as want but the trouble is that we don't know what we want...
God is our focus like a lighthouse that repeals the sin away and shows us the way to safe harbor...We need to be strong in our faith and not worry what others think and allow ourselves to live a life that is "God-centered" not "world'centered"...It's a hard task but a worthwhile challenge...it's why athletes train so they could one day scale the mountain and make it to the top where the air is clean and fresh and the view is unobstructed.
For them, the end result is the reward of something breath-taking and unique.
Another awesome look into the word of God! I have posted my thoughts on this verse here: http://christianmomsalliance.com/2008/02/20/109-who-is-my-focus-my-initiator-my-director/
I did email you the other day, did it go through? you had mentioned you wanted to chat?
anyhow, this has got me thinking... lots of mmmmhmmmm going on here... i may be to leave this open for a few hours and think about what God's trying to tell me here!
Well I'll be pondering this verse today...
Praying that my focus is on my creator!
What a wonderful, thoughtful post! Thank you for this reminder to focus on God as we go through our day.
Great post my friend.
True, this is one of the verse that I say, "What does that mean Lord!? Teach me!" I'm glad you posted this. On my ever-growing list of potential posts I've wanted to start regularly posting about difficult scripture and my heart and seeking of God to understand Him in it.
What's so beautiful to me abou the verse you bring up is the earth-shattering revelation that God the Son has truly set aside His grasp on being God when He came to this earth and that the interdependence of God as community- Three in One- is one of God's attributes. The Father depends on the Son to reveal His nature in flesh. The Son depends on the Father to show Him what to reveal. The Spirit depends on the Father to know who to reveal the Son to.
Our God is Amazing and wonderful!
Thanks again!
sheila
True, this is one of the verse that I say, "What does that mean Lord!? Teach me!" I'm glad you posted this. On my ever-growing list of potential posts I've wanted to start regularly posting about difficult scripture and my heart and seeking of God to understand Him in it.
What's so beautiful to me abou the verse you bring up is the earth-shattering revelation that God the Son has truly set aside His grasp on being God when He came to this earth and that the interdependence of God as community- Three in One- is one of God's attributes. The Father depends on the Son to reveal His nature in flesh. The Son depends on the Father to show Him what to reveal. The Spirit depends on the Father to know who to reveal the Son to.
Our God is Amazing and wonderful!
Thanks again!
sheila
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Blessings, extravagantly,
Lisa