From Praying the Names of Jesus Week Eleven, Day Five
The Name
Though God has always revealed himself in some way, the incarnation is the clearest, most compelling revelation of who God is — of his holiness, love, and power. Because Jesus is one with the Father, he is uniquely able to communicate God's heart and mind. As Logos, or "the Word," everything about Jesus — his teaching, miracles, suffering, death, and resurrection — speaks to us of God. Our destiny depends on how well we listen. Will we believe, or will we turn a deaf ear to the message of God's love? When you pray to Jesus as the Word, you are praying to the One whose voice calls us from death to life and from darkness to light.
Key Scripture
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
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Friday
Promises Associated with His Name
Imagine a family in which the people are incapable of communicating at any level — not a touch, a glance, or a word ever passes between them. Wouldn't they cease to be a family? How would the parents care for their children or for each other? How would the children know they were loved? Each child would be left alone to figure out how to live in this world.
We can be thankful that God has not left us orphans but that he has brought us into his own family, communicating his love in the most eloquent and powerful way possible through Jesus, the Word made flesh. Through his actions and his words, Jesus is the perfect expression of the Father's love. As members of God's family, we need to hear his Word and obey it just as children in a human family need to listen to and obey their parents. Without obedience, we become like fools who look in a mirror and then forget what they look like, don't remember whom they belong to. Obedience shapes us into the likeness of Jesus, the Word, so that we can experience the full blessing of being part of God's family.
Promises in Scripture
As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you." He replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it." Luke 11:27 - 28
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Those who listen to the word but do not do what it says are like people who look at their faces in a mirror and, after looking at themselves, go away and immediately forget what they look like. But those who look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continue in it — not forgetting what they have heard but doing it — they will be blessed in what they do. James 1:22 - 25
Continued Prayer and Praise
Live in obedience to God's Word. (Deuteronomy 30:14)
Let God's Word be your light in the darkness. (Psalm 119:105)
Remember that God's Word will not return to him empty. (Isaiah 55:10-11)
Be hungry for the Word. (Matthew 4:1-4)
Never be ashamed of Christ's words. (Mark 8:38)
Remember that Christ's words will never pass away. (Mark 13:31)
Let the seed of God's Word grow in your heart. (Luke 8:4-15)
Preach the Word, in season and out of season. (2 Timothy 4:1-5)
Listen to Jesus. (Hebrews 1:1-4)
Envision the final triumph of the Word. (Revelation 19:11-15)
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Meet your spiritual ancestors as they really were: Less Than Perfect: Broken Men and Women of the Bible and What We Can Learn from Them.
