John 7 devotional

John 7: 17- 18

Jesus said, "I didn't make this up. What I teach comes from the One who sent me. Anyone who wants to do His will can test this teaching and know whether it's from God or whether I'm making it up. A person making things up tries to make himself look good. But someone trying to honor the One who sent him sticks to the facts and doesn't tamper with reality.”

Application: Have you ever done something and later on you began to wonder why you did what you did? Well, friend, if you have, you are not alone. You need to ask yourself what were you trying to figure out or what were you looking for? I think what you were looking for was a motivation or a purpose behind your action. Learning what motivates you is a sign you are maturing as a person. And, for a Christian, the major motivating force in your life should be to bring glory to God. The Christian who lives to bring glory to God is a Christian who is fully mature. Think about it! Take a look at the Beatitudes Jesus talks about in Matthew 5. If you look at them closely, you will see that none of them makes you a really popular person. Actually, if you practiced most of them, people would consider you soft or weak. But, this is the beauty of God. In your weaknesses, He gets the attention or the glory. Therefore, the motivation for a Christian living out the Beatitudes is to give God the attention and not ourselves. Why does God want the glory? Because if God gets the attention, people will learn to trust in Him and ultimately they will live forever. But, if people are looking at you, it is difficult for them to see Him. And, no human is strong or rich enough to get someone into heaven! This is the point Jesus was trying to make to the religious leaders who were trying to discredit His teaching. Jesus said, "I didn't make this up. What I teach comes from the One who sent me. Anyone who wants to do His will can test this teaching and know whether it's from God or whether I'm making it up. A person making things up tries to make himself look good. But someone trying to honor the One who sent him sticks to the facts and doesn't tamper with reality.” Jesus was trying to give God the glory, but the religious leaders did not like what God was saying. The teachings of God are often difficult to hear and many times they are divisive. As a result, many of the religious leaders despised God in their hearts. And, they took out their frustration on Jesus. Now, let me be clear; it was not God’s intention to do that, but because God’s teaching shines a light on the human heart, people don’t always like what they see in their heart. Consequently, they tend to hate the one who is speaking God’s Words. This time it was Jesus, and the next time it could be you. On a lighter note, there were a few people who accepted God’s Word. They saw it was not the intention of Jesus to get the attention, but that He was trying to give the attention to God. As a result they acknowledged the teachings as truth and changed how they were living. Friend, Jesus did not teach what everyone wanted to hear, but He did teach what people needed to hear regardless of the consequences. And, because He did that, we are able to tell that it was not Jesus’ motivation to be popular, but it was his motivation to please God. And, like Jesus, if we are Christians and claim to speak God’s will, we must speak in alignment with God’s Word, which people don’t always like to hear. If we don’t align our words with God’s Word, we will speak our opinion. And, because of sin we will either knowingly or unknowingly speak in a way that brings glory to us instead of giving glory to God. Are you still looking for your motivation?

Three action steps:

1. Take the time to memorize John 7: 16 -19

2. Do you think about why you do what you do?

3. Write down some ways that you can give God glory?