Reading your Bible for today February 22

February 22: John 14:23-24

KJV Key Verse: John 14:23
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. 

Devotion:
If we really do love someone then we will be more than willing to do things for and with them. We will be encouraged from within to listen to what they have to say and obey them when they tell us things which should be done. The same is with Christ. If we love Him, then we should be willing to do things for Him and to listen to what He has written and also what He says to us. We should be willing to live according to His will. As we grow up, we (eventually) leave home and make a home for ourselves. When we find the one who we want to spend the rest of our life with, we get married and live together – that is the way God designed us and the way we should continue to be.

Christ put things quite clearly, if we are willing to love Him, then He will not only continue in His love for us, but also be willing to come to us and live with us. That is not to say that Christ will literally knock on your door and move in with you, but the Holy Spirit will live within you. Christ never lifts Himself above God the Father nor above the Holy Spirit. He declares “We will come...” meaning that He, The Father and The Holy Spirit are one and the same. What a privilege it is to know that Christ wants to live inside each of us.

So when we turn to Christ in love, He in turn comes to live in us. That means we need to be ever more vigilant about how we live our lives. For with God with us, we have a Comforter, Guide and Protector living in our lives. With Him living in our lives we are exposing Him to everything we do, right and wrong! How would you like to take your best friend to the worst place you can think of? It's not what we would think of doing – so why do we continue to expose Christ to all things we do in our lives?

Points to Ponder:
Do you protect your loved ones from bad things?

Do you allow yourself (and God) to be exposed to bad things in your life?