A Weird Reality

You know, Christians pray a lot of prayers asking God to speak to them plainly. It’s not a bad prayer. We also ask God to show us who He is. We expect an experience, a moment where God just shines so brightly we can’t miss Him. We also want to hear Him, literally with our ears, speak to us so we know what He wants. None of these things are wrong but…

I was reading the other day about Philip and Jesus. Before Jesus went to the cross He spent some time with the disciples, teaching them as much as He could, giving them what they needed to hear before he left them. Jesus was teaching and Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father and that would be enough. Jesus responded with a question: “Don’t you even know me?” See, Philip asked a question every one of us ask Jesus about every day, “Show us the Father, reveal Yourself.” One-sided questions with only one thing in mind – give us some proof of who You are, Lord, show me why I should believe in You now.

What’s sad is that we keep asking to know who He is without doing anything about our request. How often do we meet people and ask them to tell us about themselves then leave their presence? How often do we hang out with our friends and want to get to know them personally and yet never really pay attention to how they respond to issues, or even how they normally dress? Philip was with Jesus a lot, traveling all over the country with Him and listening to Him teach. For some reason He didn’t quite understand who Jesus was. Show us the Father!

Jesus has shown us the Father! Jesus said that if you have seen Him you have seen the Father. Do you want God to reveal Himself to you? Look in His word! Do you want Him to speak to you? Listen to His word! We spend so much time asking God to reveal Himself when He already is revealing Himself through His word. We spend so much time wanting God to show us who He is, we read, we pray, but we don’t do. We look for Him our own way and miss Him in our daily life because we don’t see Him as plainly as we like. Jesus made a comment during a parable that if you want to see Him look at the least. “Whatever you have done to the least of these you have done it unto me.” And it’s the same if we don’t do anything. The people we pass on the road without a home, there He goes. The orphan in the alley or different country, there He sits. The least…

You want Jesus to show Himself? It’s love. Later on Jesus tells His disciples that they need to abide in His love. How do we do that? Jesus said that we abide in His love when we obey His commands. What is His commandment? He said that the new commandment is to love one another.

The world doesn’t know what love really is and has distorted the meaning of love and defined it as infatuation or lust. Advertisements on the internet with women dressed seductively have signs posted around them, “Find true love today!” What a bunch of balogna! True love is sincere, sacrificial, and completely unselfish. Loving as Jesus did means looking beyond ourselves to the needs of others, and then get over ourselves and go and meet the need. Showing love is being a servant. Jesus said that there is no greater love than one who lays down his life for his friends. Jesus did that on the cross…sacrificial love to the fullest extent.

So, you want the Father to show Himself to you? Abide in His love by keeping His commandment to love one another just like Jesus loves.