ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST
UNITED CHURCH
Daily Devotions
12 May 2025
God said to Moses, “I am who I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites; “I AM has sent Me to you.” Exodus 3: 14
READING: Exodus 3: 1 – 7 + 11 – 14
When God called Moses at the burning bush, Moses asked God by what name he should call Him. God replied, : I AM WHO I AM.” This name is a verb, which tells us that God is alive and active and is not a being as we are but is the Being itself or Himself. In Acts 17 : 18 we read, “ In Him we live and move and have our being.” God is the source and sustainer of all beings. By using this way of speaking Jesus/God is sending us the message that even though He is fully human, He is also the Divine Being. Once Jesus told the Jewish leaders, “Before Abraham was born, I am!” John 8 : 58. In Revelation 1 : 17 – 18 Jesus says, “I am the First and the Last. I am the living One.” In Revelation 21 : 6, the loud voice from the throne said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.”
Jesus used seven “I AM” statements in the New Testament to describe who He was and is. The first is “I AM the bread of life.” John 6 : 35. Jesus was speaking to a crowd of several thousand, who He had fed the previous day from a few loaves of bread and fish. They had come searching for Him because they wanted to be with Him, not because they wanted more to eat. He pointed out to them that the kind of food they wanted would spoil and decay like the manna the Israelites ate in the desert. What they needed was, far more the kind of food that would give them true purpose and fulfilment and would last forever. In Ephesians 1 : 18 – 19, We read that God would give them, “ a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,” Paul asks God to open the eyes of their hearts so that they would know “what is the hope of their calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power towards us who believe.”
PRAYER
“I am the bread of life, he who comes to Me shall not hunger, he who believes in Me shall not thirst. No one can come to Me unless the Father draw him and I will raise him up on the last day. --- The bread that I will give is My flesh for the life of the world, and he who eats of this bread, he shall live forever. And I will raise him up on the last day. ___ Yes, Lord we believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God who has come into the world. Amen
(extracts from SOF 200)
13 May 2025
Jesus was … healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Matthew 9: 35
READING: Acts 9: 32-35
This passage from Acts shows a small moment in the spreading of the Gospel of Christ in the very early days of Christianity. We see in action the way in which God used people, as he still does, to bring others to believe in Him.
We remember Peter, at the time of the crucifixion, denying his Lord, and then, broken-hearted, receiving Jesus’ forgiveness, and being told to “feed my sheep”. And here Peter is, his volatile and fiery nature empowered and controlled by the Holy Spirit, travelling far, preaching the good news, and healing the people.
Lydda is about 25 miles northwest of Jerusalem. There lived a group who already believed. Aeneas might have been one of those believers, or certainly known by them. A paralyzed bedridden person, in those days even more than in our time, would have been completely dependent and helpless. Surely his friends brought Peter to him.
And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed” (v34).
Note that Peter heals in the name of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, Peter did not just heal Aeneas but told him to get on and live life –“ Get up and roll up your mat”(v34) – tidy away the remnants and limitations of an old life of disability. He once again had a future.
Jesus does not just heal physically but emotionally and spiritually as well. He offers complete freedom and a new start.
And we see that the knock on effect was dramatic, for, when the people around saw Aeneas standing, healed, many turned toward the Lord.
So it can be with us.
May we be like Peter, using our passion and energy to draw people to Jesus, or like Aeneas’ friends, bringing our friends into Jesus’ presence, or like Aeneas himself, opening our hearts, so that the ‘paralysis’ of our own lives, whatever form it takes, can be immediately turned around. And as we allow God's life to fill us and flow through us, may those around us see and turn towards Christ.
PRAYER
Faithful God, open the eyes of our hearts to recognise your presence in the seemingly hopeless circumstances of life. Help us to value your way of being that brings true richness to life – the way of Jesus Christ. Amen.
14 May 2025
A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples. John 13: 34 – 35a
READING: Jesus says, “ I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” John 8: 12
Once again Jesus takes on the Divine name, “I am.” when speaking about Himself. John tells us in his first letter that “God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1 : 5. So we see here that the idea of light refers to something which is part of the essence of God’s nature which Jesus came to reveal. Jesus is the Light of the world and of our lives.
Light reveals the truth and enables us to see things as they are. Jesus enables us to see what God is truly like and to see ourselves as God created us to be. Jesus tells us that, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.” John 14 : 6. Light guides our way. Jesus tells us, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Life is complicated with many decisions to make along the way. By staying close to Jesus and listening to His Word we will receive the guidance we need.
When we have lost our way in the darkness, a glimmer of light in the distance can give us renewed hope and brighten our spirits. The light of Jesus’ presence will give us courage and hope for a way forward. Jesus promised , “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28 : 20. Jesus also reassures us, “In the world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16: 33. Jesus tells us that, “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light.” John 3 : 19. Without God, our hearts can be filled with fears and wrong desires over which we have little or no power. When we turn to Jesus in faith, we are “Filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3 : 19. God’s light drives out the darkness and fills us with all the beautiful qualities of His character. John tells us about Jesus, “ In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. John 1 : 4 Praise the Lord!
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, we thank and praise You for the promise of Your light, which will take away all the darkness in the world and our lives. May Your light so shine through us that others may see it also and will turn to You. We give You all our thanks and praise that You have shown us the Light of God. Amen.
15 MAY 2025
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted. Psalm 148: 13
READING: Psalm 148
Psalm 148 is a psalm of praise, in which all of creation is called upon, invited, entreated, and commanded, to magnify the Lord.
The idea of creation praising God is found in many places in the Scriptures, such as Psalm 98:7-8 and Isaiah 55:12. But here, the psalmist, in seeking to express the magnitude and splendour of God, includes the sun, moon and stars, outer space, even the very ‘heaven of heavens,’ and all the angelic hosts where God rules – all that he can imagine, all taking up their parts in the universal praise of the Lord. “The song begins in the heavens, sweeps downward to dragons and all deeps, and then ascends again, till the people near unto Jehovah take up the strain”. (Spurgeon)
God deserves such praise from all things on earth because He alone is God; “For His name alone is exalted” (v13). There is no other being that deserves such worship, honour, and praise.
Alexander Maclaren wrote that Psalm 148 continues “…a line of thought which runs through Scripture from its first page to its last” – namely, that, just as sin of various types has affected creation in many ways, redemption, through Jesus Christ, will restore and glorify creation.
Praising God, even when it feels difficult, can be seen as a sacrifice that releases God's power and presence. Praising God can strengthen faith, renew the spirit, and bring joy and hope, especially during difficult times.
We are also encouraged to praise the Lord because he is Preserver as well as Creator, Ruler as well as Maker, and because He has drawn near to His people. Having created us, He has never left us alone, and in the coming of Jesus we have seen the lengths to which God will go to preserve, guide and communicate with us. Our response must be praise.
In Philippians 2:10-11 we read that all people will one day praise the Lord: “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.
PRAYER
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ! Amen.
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
1 Peter 5:7
16 MAY 2025
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
These are words of great encouragement, and maybe conviction, for everyone struggling with the harsh realities of life
The Bible is filled with examples of God caring for people under all circumstances.
God cared for Timothy, who struggled with frequent illness. He cared for James, who got executed by Herod’s sword because of his testimony. He cared for John, exiled on a lonely island. He cared for Stephen, even though he was dragged away from the synagogue and stoned.
God cared about Paul, locked up in his prison cell.
God told him: “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome” (Acts 23:11).
With that I’m sure Paul cast all his anxiety on the Lord. Yet he remained in custody for at least two years after the Lord appeared to him.
Did God stop caring in those two years?
Of course not. God answered his servant’s prayer by giving him the kind of peace that allowed him to write, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” (Phil. 4:12).
What is this secret?
Verse 13: ”I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
Peter writes that we should take that fear and cast it—throw it—onto our Father God. In fact, he tells us to take all of our anxieties, everything that worries us, and to give it to the God who cares so deeply for us. This is not a promise that God will fix everything which worries us. God is not obligated to follow whatever script we write for Him. It's a promise that the Almighty receives our worries, and cares about them. He carries them for us. He strengthens us. He consoles us through His Holy Spirit. He is with us in every moment through every situation and His Love for us is never ending. He is trustworthy to handle all our worries and cares in the way that is best according to His Holy plan and the Honour and Glory of His name.
Prayer:
Lord, You are our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Amen
