City Life Starter

Written by Aisha Darwesh

The Word

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

John 5:24 (ESV)

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

John 17:3 (ESV)

Aisha’s Analysis

Today’s verses show us that eternal life springs from hearing God’s Word, believing God, and ultimately from knowing God. This clearly demonstrates that God’s Word is so much more than words on a page. By God’s divine grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can have a dynamic relationship with God’s Word through Jesus. It’s an avenue to know Him, and knowing Him produces life. 

The enemy is deathly afraid of us cultivating God’s Word in our hearts because he knows that once it’s planted in our hearts, there’s nothing he can do to stop it! This behooves us to dive into God’s Word more and more and explore the pathways and promises contained in the scriptures, yet there’s a tendency to either let it go through one ear and out the other or ignore it altogether. 

Why is that? Or better yet, what can we do to ensure that doesn’t happen to us personally? Hebrews 4 gives us a clue as to why the majority of the children of Israel who were delivered from Egypt did not make it to the Promised Land:

¹ Now the promise of entering into God’s rest is still for us today. So we must be extremely careful to ensure that we all embrace the fullness of that promise and not fail to experience it. ² For we have heard the good news of deliverance just as they did, yet they didn’t join their faith with the Word. Instead, what they heard didn’t affect them deeply, for they doubted. ³ For those of us who believe, faith activates the promise and we experience the realm of confident rest!

Hebrews 4:1-3 (The Passion Translation)

From the above scripture, we see that faith activates the promises of God. It’s in believing in who God is and His ability to work in our lives that we experience the power of God’s promises and the joy of knowing Him. God wants more than a robotic obedience to a list of rules. He wants a trusting love-relationship that will quite naturally produce corresponding actions. If you really believed God’s Word and that He actually is who He says He is, how would your daily life be different?

Application

How does God’s Word impact you on a day-to-day basis? When you read it, do you believe it? This may seem really basic, but just to see what happens, as and when you read God’s Word, act like it’s true. 

Not only that, read the Word to find out who God is. As you discover His nature and characteristics, you’ll find it’s much easier to trust and believe what He says. 

If you make the above a part of your regular practice, you’ll find eternal life springing up and flowing out of you moment by moment and forevermore.

Prayer

Father God, thank You for resurrecting me from death to life. You transformed what once was a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. Because of Your great love, You have equipped me to love You back. May I find true and confident rest in Your Word, in You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.