Lydia listens

Lily Cathcart May 25, 2022 0 1

Playlists

Add to Favourites

Save for later

Listen to this daily worship

John 14: 15-31 (NRSVA)

15 ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

18 ‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’ 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?’ 23 Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

25 ‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, “I am going away, and I am coming to you.” If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.

Women in the Bible don’t get much of a chance to share their voice and viewpoint so this week I have invited Lydia from Acts 16 to write a week of reflections:

I would have loved to be one of those people hearing Jesus talk firsthand. I like to imagine how I would have sat at his feet, listened carefully and been able to invite him into my home to hear even more of his wisdom and truth. Faith is a risk, especially now, and how much easier it would be to believe wholeheartedly if we had heard from Jesus’ own lips and seen his miracles with our own eyes. ‘I will no longer talk much with you’ he said in verse 30 and I wonder if anyone listening really understood how true that was going to be.

But God is greater than our doubts and worries, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to us and so he has done. We are linked to Jesus still and to God and to the Spirit. We can still listen, we can still hear. Whoever we are, whenever and wherever we are born, we can sit at Jesus’ feet and in God’s presence.

PRAYER:

Dear God who speaks,

Let us hear your voice in our lives

Keep us connected to you through your Spirit

Teach us to discern your voice from the others in our minds.

Amen