Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
You and I begin each day with confidence in several unchanging realities! We are confident our planet earth will continue to rotate at exactly the same speed that it has for millennia and thus time will move, and sunrise will happen right on schedule. Gravity will work as it always has, and after a few hours evening will arrive, and it will be the end of this day. But the truth is when it comes to most every other aspect of our lives today, we cannot be as totally confident. All around us the unexpected is happening all the time.
It was very much the same in the first century and therefore the apostle John was writing his first letter to raise confidence in those early Christians that God was reliable and their salvation, if authentic, is secure in Jesus Christ. John has only a few more verses to write in his fifth and final chapter. “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know [with confidence] that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us…” (1 John 5:13,14) The question of life after death was as big an issue then as it is in 2022. Of course, there were many different religions and theories about what happens when a person dies. Jesus had repeatedly explained that He had come to earth to make eternal life with God possible for anyone and assure us that heaven, where God and the holy angels reside, is just as real as planet earth!
Jesus had made it clear the passport required for entrance into that eternity with God in heaven is full faith in the fact that Jesus Christ is God the Son; and that the death Jesus died on the cross is the full atonement death God requires for forgiveness of our sin, and that God will apply that death payment of Jesus to the sins of any person if they will confess their sin to God and turn from their sin to trust in Jesus. So, I have a simple but profound question: do you know with total confidence that you have eternal life with God awaiting you at the moment of your death? Do you agree with Jesus when He said: “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by Me.” (John 14:6)
Do you see John’s second, powerful statement in 1 John 5:14: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” What does it mean and are you confident you can approach God without fear, and He will hear you? From the days of Adam and Eve and their sons Cain and Abel, this has been a significant issue for every generation of our human race.
Go anywhere in the world, and you’ll find every society of people have devised pathways to God and rituals which they assure you will gain you a hearing from God. It’s Friday prayers in the Mosque or 5 times a day prayers facing east on prayer mats for more than 1 billion Muslims worldwide. It’s incense in front of multi-colored, many armed, man-made statues for Hindus. It’s candles and rosaries for Roman Catholics offering prayers in Cathedrals with man-made statues and a crucifix. And what does prayer look like for you my friend, no matter where you live or to whom you pray around the world? What confidence do you have that the God who created the Universe and created you is listening to your prayer?
You’ll remember the disciples were so concerned about this issue that they asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, since they watched Him pray so often and they saw the results of His prayers. The response Jesus gave them is what we often call “the Lord’s Prayer” found in Luke 11:1-4 and Matt. 6:5-13.
The author of the book of Hebrews went into great detail about heaven being open for God’s people to speak to God in prayer with great confidence that God is approachable; God knows those who enter His presence to pray; and God cares deeply about the things we, His people, pray about. Hebrews 4:14-16 says: “Since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weakness, but we have One who has been tempted in every way just as we are – yet He was without sin. Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Oh my “walking with Jesus” friends, those three verses are so clear and full of so much truth about our human approach to Almighty, Holy God. Can you identify the specific truth statements, and can you see how those statements discount, deny and prove faulty all the man-made prayer paths found in religions all over the world? God says our human approach to God in prayer has been made possible by these powerful truths:
* The incarnation of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
* His death payment and His resurrection; and His ascension back to heaven where He serves now as High Priest, interceding for all who approach God in prayer.
* Also, Jesus is sinless, yet He can empathize with our human experience because in His incarnation, Jesus experienced everything in the human journey except sin.
Therefore, those people who have been authentically born again by the Holy Spirit of God are invited by God to “approach His throne of grace with confidence.”
Friends are you owning that as God’s invitation to YOU, if you are genuinely born again, to come into His throne room via prayer, anytime day or night, from anyplace on our planet, in any language known to mankind! We are welcome in that throne room as adopted sons and daughters of Almighty God our heavenly Father. We are welcome without an appointment or without paying any entrance fee or without lighting incense or rubbing beads or prostrating ourselves facing a particular direction or on a mat. We are welcome, just as we are, for our Creator loves us, He knows us better than we know ourselves and He longs for conversation with us which will deepen our relationship with God. Did you get that my friends? 
I think it’s time we put all those truths to the test, right now! I invite us, all of us, everywhere in the world where you are receiving this “Walking with Jesus”…let’s approach Almighty God right now. Let’s do so in the name of Jesus the Son of God and Savior of all those who trust Jesus. As we approach God, if you are confident, He is your heavenly Father, and He has adopted you into His family as His son or daughter, then approach God with the love and confidence of His acceptance of you that He promises. And then go ahead… talk with God! What would you like to say to God today? And then pause and listen… listen for God to speak back to you and write down whatever sense God is saying. Here’s a hint for you… do this with your Bible open and your eyes looking at the words we just read in Hebrews 4:14-16…and be ready friends, you are about to have an encounter with God!
Today’s Scripture is 1 John 5:13, 14.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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