Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

• September 18th - 1 John 5:11-12

  1 John 5:11-12 This is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. Sooner or later, everyone is bound to ask what life is all about. Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen, one of the most successful rock groups of all time, asked the question in one of his last songs: “Does anyone know what we are living for?” It was a genuine cry from the heart. In human terms, he had everything. He had money and fame on a colossal scale, but, shortly before his death in 1991, he admitted that he was desperately lonely. He said: “You can have everything in the world and still be the loneliest man, and that is the most bitter type of loneliness. Success has brought me world idolisation and millions of pounds, but it’s prevented me from having the one thing we all need – a loving, ongoing relationship.” John would have totally agreed with Mercury. A “loving, ongoing relationship” is what we all need, and the only place to find that is in our relationship with God. Human relationships are wonderful, but they come and go, and even the best of them cannot last forever. However, our relationship with God has no limits and will never come to an end. It is this relationship which opens the door to life in all its fullness. John was typically blunt in his language. If you have faith in Jesus, you have life, and if you don’t have faith in him, you don’t have life. This is completely in line with Jesus’ own language. He said: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Jesus’ words give the definitive answer to anyone who wants to find the real purpose of life, whether they are a rock star or you and me. Question What do you think John meant by describing people as not having life? Prayer Lord God, thank you that your Son came to this world to give us life in all its fullness. Amen

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• September 17th - 1 John 5:4-5

  1 John 5:4-5 For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. We need to be clear that whenever John talks about the world in this passage, he is talking about the world without God. When humankind rejects God, the world is a terrible place full of sin, death and destruction. We are all called to live in such a world, but John wanted to make it clear that we don’t need to be scared of it because in Christ, we have the victory. On Good Friday, Jesus died as the evil world unleashed its worst on him, but that wasn’t the end. On the Sunday morning, Jesus rose from death and proved that he had the victory. This has very practical implications for us. It affects our daily lives in a very profound way. Day by day, we head into a world where God is not respected by most people. The news is full of accounts of abuse, violence, brokenness and disorder. On the face of it, this is all very depressing, but the wonderful fact is that because Jesus has won the final victory over sin and death, we can look at the world with hope and confidence. Towards the end of Jesus’ ministry, he encouraged his disciples to receive his gift of peace. His words were very realistic. He didn’t deny that there would be problems in the world, but assured his followers that final victory would be theirs. Jesus said: “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). At times, it might feel as if the power of God and of evil are fairly evenly matched, but they aren’t! As we place our trust in God, we can claim the Easter victory every day. This should fill us with confidence as we serve God today. Question What do you understand by Jesus’ claim that he had overcome the world? Prayer Loving God, I thank you for your gift of peace. Thank you that as I trust myself to you, nothing can destroy it. Amen

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• September 16th - 1 John 4:11-12

  1 John 4:11-12 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. You cannot see the wind, but you can easily see the effects that it has. Equally, you cannot see electricity, but we have no doubt that it exists because of all that it does. No one has ever seen God, but we know that he exists because we see his love reflected in the people around us. The more we love people, the more they will have the opportunity to see the living God. Tertullian, one of the early Church Fathers, wrote of how the pagan Romans were struck by the Christians’ way of life. “See how they love one another,” was their response. I would love to think this would be the response to each of our churches, and I believe it often is. People see churches setting up food banks, debt advice services, parent and toddler groups, listening services and many other activities. They are wonderful expressions of love and care to our communities, but let’s be honest – people often see something very different. They see churches squabbling over doctrine, worship and buildings, and the last thing they see is love. We won’t make things better by decrying the Church and blaming other Christians for not being loving. We need to look to ourselves and reflect on how we can be more loving. As we listen to God’s voice, we need to find practical ways of increasing our love for our Christian brothers and sisters, and then explore together ways in which we can share his love more fully. We don’t want to put on a big show, but we want to love. We want to make it clear to everyone in our communities that God is alive and well. Question How can you reflect God’s love today? Prayer Lord God, I thank you for your amazing love to me. Help me to share your love generously with others in whatever I do. Amen

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• September 15th - 1 John 4:10

  1 John 4:10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Most of the love that we experience in our lives is reciprocal. We love other people, and they love us. Sometimes we have taken the initiative and, on other occasions, they have done so. It is very different with God. There is nothing that we could ever do to win his love. However hard we might try, we could never get to a point where God was forced to love us. The fact that he has chosen to love us is entirely down to his own initiative. This is an incredibly important truth because the whole of our Christian life needs to flow from it. In his letters, Paul often used the word grace to describe God’s relationship with us. Forgiveness and salvation are a matter of sheer gift. There is nothing we could ever do to contribute towards them. When we take the step of faith and accept Jesus into our lives, we are simply responding to his incredible generosity to us. Paul wrote to the Ephesians: “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Because of God’s incredible and totally unmerited love, our lives need to be full of praise and thanksgiving. If we had made any contribution at all towards our salvation, it would be different. We could go around with a smug expression knowing that our wonderful lives had been duly rewarded with the gift of God’s love. However, as it is, all we can do is boast about God and keep telling others just how incredibly generous he is. Question How do you respond to the fact that God loved you long before you ever thought about him? Prayer Lord God, I thank you for your amazing love. Help me to allow it to shape every part of my life. Amen

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• September 14th - 1 John 4:1

  1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. There have always been false teachers, but they must have been particularly difficult to face in the early Church. Many Christians would have come from completely different religious and philosophical backgrounds, and few of the church leaders would have had much education. It would have been extremely easy for articulate people to creep into the Church and lead people astray. Anyone can claim to speak by the Spirit, and it is not surprising that many young impressionable Christians simply accepted what they were saying. What John wanted to do was to encourage every Christian to test what they heard. Jesus himself was well aware of the challenge from false teachers. In the Sermon on the Mount, he said: “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act” (Matthew 7:15-16). Jesus was saying that the lives of prophets must ring true. A prophet who is unkind, rude, bitter, unforgiving or unloving couldn’t possibly be a true prophet. There were many different false teachings floating around in the early Church, but John was particularly concerned about those who were denying that Jesus was really human. He was very blunt: if someone did not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, he concluded that person did not come from God and had the spirit of the antichrist. False teaching wasn’t just unfortunate, but was to be avoided and resisted at all costs. In a world that is teeming with false prophets, we all need to be on the alert. John declared that we can be confident as we do so because the Holy Spirit is greater than the spirit who lives in the world, and he will lead us into all truth. Question What are the false teachings which we need to be careful to avoid today? Prayer Loving God, help me to listen to the voice of your Holy Spirit day by day. Amen

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