June 3, 2020 -- John 1:11-12 -- Children overcoming doubt

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name,

he gave the right to be come children of God…

John 1:11 English Standard Version

Why did His own people not receive Jesus? They were darkened in their sin and hardened in unbelief. This resulted in the Good News of God’s love going both to the Jewish people and going far and wide beyond the Jewish people to all the people of the world. How is it that anyone can receive Jesus as the Captain of their salvation?

It is the work of the Spirit—Jesus explains this to Nicodemus in John 3:8—the Spirit is like the wind in that the wind blows where it will. So the Spirit goes to the person He will bless.

Witnesses, strengthened and sent by the Spirit, go to the men and women determined by this same Holy Spirit as those who are being called from death to life.

Dear fellow believers, remember how it was hard to accept that God the Holy One of Heaven and Earth, should be prepared to love you and in Christ forgive your wickedness? There are people all around you who are locked in a cycle of self-talk that bars them from hearing good news. Or, having started to believe this good news feel beaten down by doubts, plagued by the fear that their sins are too great, too much for God to conquer. They need faithful, persistent witnesses—loving mentors and faithful teachers who point out the fact that becoming children of God does not rest on one’s own sense of feeling forgiven.

Too often people don’t feel forgiven. Feelings are deceptive. Feelings are easily influenced. Do you really believe major corporations spend hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising without any hope of return? They know people are easily influenced to buy products or services they do not need. When we read a verse which holds such beautiful hope in Christ, we are compelled to go and invite others to have the same assurance we do—assurance that is based on the rock-solid word of God.

If our feelings agree, thanks be to God. If our feelings fluctuate, wavering towards doubt and fear, we turn to the word of God and pray for the testimony (that is, the witness of the Holy Spirit) to remind us we are God’s children not by human design or will, but by the right given us by God our faithful Father. If those around us are struggling with their own sense of worthlessness and inadequacy, remind them it is God the Faithful Father Who has chosen His children in love. Feelings will betray us. The Word is given as the black and white written proof of God’s love. As you present this good news, let the Spirit of God and the word of God do the convincing. Pray for the person you are regularly speaking with that God’s Word and Spirit will accomplish the work to which you were sent to bear witness.

Blessed are You, God of Persistent love and faithfulness. Thank You for sending Jesus to His Own. Thank You for the Spirit Who convinces hearts of sin and the victory of Jesus Christ over all our sin. Thank You, Triune God, for the privilege we have of bearing witness to Your great and glorious work of salvation. Rule in our hearts and break down any resistance to Your reign so that in us You are all in all. Jesus, King and the Captain of Salvation, work in us as soldiers of the cross so that the message of Your victory will reach those who You are calling to be Your people. Give us the persistence of well-disciplined soldiers to remain at our posts even when the conflict is intense and comes at great cost. To Your Name, Jesus, be the honour and praise so that the Father’s love will reach all nations by the powerful work of the Spirit. Amen.