1/9/2012

John 1:42 And he brought him to Jesus, now when Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas” (which is translated, A Stone).

How grateful I am that Jesus sees us in the completed form…here Jesus is no longer referring to Simon by his original name meaning “he has heard” but as Cephas meaning “A Stone” …Simon had now heard the good news and he was to stand strong as a stone in the things he would hear. God sees past our present state into our glorified and sanctified being.

God, thank you that when You look on me, you see me clothed and surrounded in your Son and His righteousness. Please help me to look at others with this same filter. It is not always easy to see through that but I know that you are able God to give me that strength just as you did Paul. 

1/10/12

John 1:43 The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Phillip and said to him, “Follow Me.”

God has chosen each one of us just as He chose each of His disciples. It is so special to think that I have been chosen by God; He knew before the foundation of the world who would follow Him and who wouldn’t. I am so thankful (as it says in Psalm 139) that God knew me in my mother’s womb before anyone else knew my eye or hair color or even my name. If I were to only fully grasp this, it would give me completeness in so many that I do not fill in Him but in my own strength.

God, I thank you that you knew that I, Janessa, would follow you as you handpicked me to do your work. I am thankful that you are mindful of me no matter where I am. Oh Precioso Padre, I pray that I would never count my salvation as something of myself but only from You.