Jesus in His Relationships - Jesus and The Father (Daily Devotional)

Shalom and welcome to a new series of Living Supernaturally. This is a time where we look into God's word, choose a topic and pray at the end. We hope and trust that through this series we will be blessed. Today, we are going to be touching upon Jesus in His relationships. When we think about Jesus, we often focus on His miracles, on His ministry, on His teachings and on the sacrifice on the cross. One of the aspects that we are going to be looking at through this week is the way that He related to others and in other relationships while He lived on this earth. We see that Jesus had right from His deep connection to the Heavenly Father to His tender compassion to people around, Jesus showed what it means to have true and godly relationships. Everywhere He went, Jesus built connections and those connections were always marked by love, by grace, by truth, and by humility. He honored His parents, He invested in His disciples, He welcomed the marginalized, He forgave His enemies and even cared for the crowds. Even in His most venerable moments, we see that He left an example to follow and that is something that we are going to be looking at through this series. So, this series will help us reflect on Jesus in His relationships. So, as we journey through this, may we be inspired not just to admire how Jesus related, but let's allow the Spirit to transform us in the way we relate in our own families, in our communities and even toward those who may oppose us. When we look at the earthly life of Jesus, one thing stands out: that is, every word He spoke, every miracle He performed and every interaction He had flowed from His relationship with the Heavenly Father. His connection with God was not secondary; it was central. Jesus and the Father: it was a foundational relationship for Jesus- connecting and relating to His Father. We read in John chapter 5 verse 19, ‘Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees the Father doing because whatever the Father does the Son also does.’ Through His ministry, we see that at different points how Jesus connected with the Father. At His baptism, we see that the Father affirms Him saying, ‘this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.’ In His ministry, Jesus always withdrew to pray, Jesus always sought the will of the Father at all times and did things only according to the will of the Father. Even in Gethsemane, we see Jesus prayed, surrendered and said ‘not my will but yours be done.’ We see that Jesus lived in perfect unity with His Father and because of that He was able to love others unconditionally; He was able to forgive His enemies, serve with humility, and even live with authority. So, if Jesus Himself needed to remain deeply connected to the Father, how much more should you and I. Our identity, our strength to love and our ability to forgive all begin in our relationship with God. So, when our relationship with our Father is our foundation, we no longer demand from others what God can give us, which is our worth, our joy, and our sense of being loved. Let us, like Jesus, remain dependent and connected to our Heavenly Father. Let us pray together, Lord Jesus, we thank you for what you have shown—an example of what it means to be in complete dependence and connection with the Heavenly Father. Thank you, Father, that you are teaching us to follow that example. May we always be in communion with you. Lord, you lead our lives and thank you for hearing our prayers, in Jesus' name, Amen.

Thank you for tuning in to Living Supernaturally, for more resources to strengthen your spiritual walk, please visit apcwo.org.