Who Is Jesus – Today’s Lenten Devotional By Us and For Us –

Today’s devotional by Dawn Stefani the Ministry and Outreach coordinator of Kane Community Methodist Church is asking a very important question: Who is Jesus? We hope and pray this devotional will not only draw you closer but place a desire to know who Jesus is to you and hear the call of Jesus “Follow Me”

Devotionals By Us for Us

Who Is Jesus

Devotional by Dawn Stefani

Read John 7:31-41

This scripture speaks of when Jesus was being confronted by the Pharisees, challenging who he is and what he is doing. There is an awful lot going on in these verses, but I feel I should focus on this: Who do you say Jesus is?

The Pharisees were condemning him in a very public setting on the last day of a festival for performing a miracle on the Sabbath. The area was full of Jewish people. The Pharisees seemed to want to show all these people that Jesus was a liar, a false prophet and a violator of the Law. Jesus doesn’t shrink away but steps up and speaks to the whole crowd. He was saying he would only be physically present with them a little while longer and later on in the passage he yells out to the crowd, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” And then the murmuring started, he’s The Prophet, he’s the Christ, who is this man that can speak like this and do these things?

You see, until this time no man had ever spoken with such authority nor performed the miracles that he had been doing. The Pharisees couldn’t explain it but felt threatened by it. The people knew what they heard and saw but the religious leaders, the ones that knew scripture best, were telling them they were ignorant and had no understanding of the scriptures.

I find myself getting caught up in the head knowledge of God’s Word, so much so that sometimes I don’t look for God to speak to me through it. I know in my head that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Word become flesh and walked among us, took on the sins of the world and gave us a path to relationship with God by His death and resurrection and forgives our sin, redeems us and walks with us if we confess, repent and receive it.

But what’s in my heart? What is the Spirit telling me about all of this? So, it led me to ask what Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Not who does the pastor say I am, who does your neighbor say I am, who does your family say I am? Who do YOU say I am?

So having seen God work in my life and the lives around me and knowing the head knowledge that I listed above from scripture and through the Holy Spirit working in me in my life every day, I say Jesus is my Lord and Savior, my King of Kings, my Shepherd, my Counselor, my everything. They who saw and heard first hand struggled to come up with the Truth. You have now heard and seen. So, who do you say Jesus is?

Prayer:

Lord, open our eyes to see and hear you, receive all you have for us each moment and allow you to work in and through us for Your good and glory always. In Jesus precious name, Amen.