Today's encouragement comes from John 8:42a, where we read these words:
"Jesus said to them, 'If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came from God and I am here.' "If we do not have the same God that Jesus refers to, as *our* Father, then we are completely ignorant of the True God. If God *is* our Father, then we *do* love the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no breaking up the Holy Trinity. This has huge ramifications. Anyone who "prays" to "God," but who does not do it in and through faith in and love for Jesus Christ, in fact does not pray to God at all.
But Jesus' words here in v. 42 are foreboding. Remember: He did not say these things to pagans and "infidels." He said them to formal members of the covenant, who, though they should have known better, neither loved nor ac-knowledged the Christ who stood before them. By God’s miraculous and sov-ereign grace leading to regeneration in Jesus, may we recognize, embrace, and love Him!
[Puritan quote of the day: "Fill your heart with the sense of the love of God in Christ, and apply the eternal design of His grace and shed blood to your-selves.” —John Owen, in, "Sin and Temptation"]
