"Moving In"
May 23, 2019
(Jesus said) "In that day you will ask nothing of Me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My Name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in My Name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in My Name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father."
~ John 16:23-28 (ESV)
When I married into the Vietnamese community, I had severe culture shock. For example, when I said to a Vietnamese friend, "Please make yourself at home"—well, they really did! They would show up with bags of groceries, head straight into the kitchen, and begin cooking up a storm. They went through the fridge and the silverware drawer. The meal was delicious. And they washed all my dishes.
But I couldn't get over the boundary crossing. You see, in America, "make yourself at home" is more or less a polite fiction. We don't really expect our guests to take over the kitchen. Our fridges and silverware drawers are sacrosanct. We don't expect people to move in! There is always a boundary—a "no-go" area, that marks the difference between family members and guests.
Most of us think of God's home that way also, I suspect. God may say to us, "You are My children—make yourselves at home," but we still think of ourselves as guests—only one step removed from outsiders—using our best manners and asking permission for everything. We are not "at home." At least, we don't really think so!
To this attitude, Jesus says, "In that day you will ask nothing of Me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My Name, He will give it to you ... In that day you will ask in My Name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God."
Just imagine! Jesus says we can go straight to the Father in His Name. We don't have to do things round-about, asking for what we need through the family member who invited us home, that is, Jesus: "Would You please go ask Your Father if ...?" We are no longer guests, but children, and the Father Himself loves us. Why? Because we love Jesus and trust in Him; we believe in Him.
Now personally, I am happy to ask Jesus things. But I am also deeply grateful that, because of His sacrifice on the cross, I can truly be "at home" with God the Father, no longer a guest but a child—through Jesus our Savior.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, teach me what it means to be God's child. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo. Use these devotions in your newsletter and bulletin! Used by permission; all rights reserved by the Int'l LLL (LHM).
When I married into the Vietnamese community, I had severe culture shock. For example, when I said to a Vietnamese friend, "Please make yourself at home"—well, they really did!
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