Daily Reflections ...

Today as you pray, gently come into God’s presence and become aware that the One who is holding you in being is breathing his life into you. It always starts there. This God who is closer to you than you are to yourself is loving you and calling you into his life.

As he does this, God leads us into truth, for that which is not true can have no place in God. Sometimes that truth is hard to hear. In today’s text from John’s account of the good news, the disciples rejoice that Jesus is “speaking plainly.” It is as if the penny finally drops: ‘now we see who you are and what you have been trying to teach us.’ It is as if the scales have fallen from their eyes, and they see Jesus for the first time.

Notice what happens next. Because the disciples can now see, he can tell them something they do not want to hear. He teaches them that the life of faith will take him (and, by implication, each of us) into spaces we would rather not go. This can be frightening, particularly if we think God’s job is to help us avoid those spaces.

“But take courage; I have conquered the world.” Take these words into your prayer, knowing that the One breathing his life into you is with you throughout your day today.

by Shane Dwyer