Topic: Focus on Jesus to know Yourself [ Archbishop Margaret E. Benson Idahosa] Above Only Daily Devotional 18 March 2020
Click HERE for Previous Above Only
Colossians 3:1-4 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
1 John 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
Jesus did not only come to reveal God the Father to us, He came to reveal us to us. He came to show us the kind of life we now have because we believe in Him and have the life of God in us. If you believe in Jesus, you are born of God, 1 John 5:1. You are not who you used to be before. You are a new creature. Your old life died with Christ and a new you rose up with Christ when He rose from the dead. You are just like Christ. 1 Corinthians 6:17 (CEV) says, “But anyone who is joined to the Lord is one in spirit with him”. We are the sons of God right now. 1 John 3:1-2 says, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” The Bible says we are joint heirs with Christ, Rom. 8:17.
By your faith in Jesus and receiving Him, you are a son of God, John 1:12-13. Your life no longer comes from your flesh and blood but from the life of God in you. Our last text above does not say as Christ is so we will be. It says as Christ is so are we. Our first text above says Christ is our life. If we are one with Christ and we have His life, then to really know who we are, we must stop focusing on ourselves and put all of our focus and attention on Jesus. We must desire to know Him. We cannot know Him on our own, Matt. 16:17. We need the help of the Spirit. As we focus on the glory of Christ, the Spirit of God continually transforms us into His image. He makes us more and more like who we really are – like Christ. Our destiny is to be conformed to His image (Rom. 8:29) and to attain His fullness, Eph. 4:13.
Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, I desire to know you and to become more and more like you every day. Reveal yourself to me more and more.
Bible in one year reading plan: Joshua 4-6, Luke 1:1-20.