Continuing in His Word

Many things that Jesus has said previously and things He says today bounce off our hearts and minds without any effect, because our hearts are hard. In the discourse below, the religious people thought they understood what Jesus was saying to them. It is easy for us to see how confused and misled they were by their satisfaction with their conditions. It is not easy for us to see many ways we suffer the same illness.

As He was saying these things, many believed in Him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, you really are My disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

“We are descendants of Abraham,” they answered Him, “and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will become free’?”

Jesus responded, “I assure you: Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever. Therefore if the Son sets you free, you really will be free. I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill Me because My word is not welcome among you. I speak what I have seen in the presence of the Father, and therefore you do what you have heard from your father.”

“Our father is Abraham!” they replied.

“If you were Abraham’s children,” Jesus told them, “you would do what Abraham did. But now you are trying to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this! You’re doing what your father does.”

“We weren’t born of sexual immorality,” they said. “We have one Father—God.”

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, because I came from God and I am here. For I didn’t come on My own, but He sent Me. Why don’t you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to My word. You are of your father the Devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of liars. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Who among you can convict Me of sin? If I tell the truth, why don’t you believe Me? The one who is from God listens to God’s words. This is why you don’t listen, because you are not from God.”
(John 8:30-47 HCSB ©®)

What opportunities will today hold for us to continue in His word? How will we recognize them? His mercy is new every morning. I’m sure we don’t always recognize it. What prayer can open the door to being capable of receiving such revelation and continuing in it? Ask for that prayer and pray it.