Written by: Peter Grieg & Carla Trundle - 24-7 Prayer

John 1 v 1-3
In the beginning there was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made by him, and nothing was made without him.

Notes
I’m ashamed to admit that I often lose sight of who Jesus is, and the awesome respect he deserves in my daily life. I get so engrossed in what I’m doing for the kingdom that I forget whom I’m doing it for!

In these verses John refers to Jesus as the “Word”. He was “with God” and he “was God”. Jesus has been a part of God for eternity! He helped and delighted in our creation, and there are reflections of him in everyone and everything around us.

Jesus is the “Word” - he walked the talk of his Father. John wrote this gospel nearly a generation after the others. He began not with an account of Christ’s birth, nor with an inventory of his earthly lineage, but by affirming and reminding us of Christ’s identity in his Father God. 

Before you rush into your day, spend some time reminding yourself of who Jesus is and the reason we have been given life.

John 1 v 4-5
In him there was life, and that life was the light of all people. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it.

Notes
Light does three things: it guides, it comforts and it reveals. In Jesus we find a life that is an incredible example and inspiration. We have comfort in the knowledge that we are saved, but we also find that Jesus’ light can highlight the darkness in us. Have you ever noticed that the closer you get to God, the more junk you realise you need to deal with? But God isn’t in the business of guilt trips. He doesn’t expose our weakness only to laugh at our vulnerability. He promises to forgive us if we confess our sin, and in John 8 v 12 he declares that all who follow Jesus “…will have the light that gives life”.

I used to imagine this light like a lightbulb attached to a rusty dynamo. My “good” deeds peddle the bike that powers the dynamo. When I strove to do many good deeds the light would burn brighter, but I would tire easily and could never sustain it for long. It took me a while to realise that I had the whole thing backward. I am created in God’s image (Genesis 1 v 27). Therefore, before I lift a finger God has placed his light inside me to be uncovered.

By spending time with God, that light is nurtured and God’s desires grow naturally in my heart. Spend some time examining the focus of your life at present. Are you allowing your light to shine, or are you hiding it in stress, sin and busyness?

John 1 v 6-7
There was a man named John who was sent by God. He came to tell people the truth about the Light so that through him all people could hear about the Light and believe.

Notes
It’s always difficult to be the first to declare a new thing. Christopher Columbus was shunned by the great thinkers of his time when he declared that the world was round. It takes courage to stand by your convictions when everyone around you believes you’re wrong.

In John’s gospel we find that the grace of God reaches to all men and rejects none. John the Baptist was commissioned by God to point people to a Saviour that was yet to come (Matthew 3 v 1-3). He was so burdened by his commission that he sacrificed material comfort to rely on God. What courage it must have taken to declare a Messiah no other religious figure of the day recognised! We are privileged that we can actually know the Saviour we are commissioned to share. Our news isn’t about someone yet to come; we have the reality of a living God who offers eternal life and love to all who accept him. If you want to renew that urgency to share Jesus’ love, then spend a moment with God and read these words of Jesus:

“All power in heaven and on earth is given to me. So go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptise them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything that I have taught you, and I will be with you always, even until the end of this age.” (Matthew 28 v 18-20)

John 1 v 8-9
John was not the Light, but he came to tell people the truth about the Light. The true Light that gives light to all was coming into the world!

Notes
How often do we get distracted from focusing on God by the people and signs he sends to direct us? Imagine driving to London and stopping at the first signpost you see. If you never move on from that sign, you will never reach your destination.

John pointed people towards Jesus because he recognised that he himself was “not the Light”, but Jesus was. He had been given something to bring to the people, but he was careful not to distract people from the focus of his message. 

We have all been offered direct access to Jesus, but sometimes I find myself focusing on the signs rather than the Saviour. I look to the worship leader, or the teacher in my church, when really I should absorb what they have to bring and then focus on Jesus.

Spend some time with God and think about how much time you spend talking about him, as opposed to talking to him. Take responsibility for your own journey today and refocus yourself on your personal relationship with Jesus.

John 1 v 10-11
The Word was in the world, and the world was made by him, but the world did not know him. He came to the world that was his own, but his own people did not accept him. 

Notes
I work for an international movement called 24-7 Prayer. The vision is to mobilise young people into a mission-minded lifestyle of prayer (www.24-7prayer.com). Since it began three years ago, in a small back room in my church building, it’s spread like an epidemic through over fifty nations. We’ve seen incredible answers to prayer, but one of the struggles I’ve experienced is explaining what I do to my family. No matter how many stories I tell, they find it hard to grasp how something that their daughter is involved in could have become so large and dynamic.

For a long time I found this really frustrating. My family were meant to support and encourage me, but often they would just smile with a confused look when I’d talk about praying through the night.

When Jesus came to earth, only a few hundred people recognised who he was and what he’d come to do. But Jesus didn’t get frustrated or develop a “you never understand me” attitude. Instead, he died on a cross to give everyone the opportunity to have a relationship with God. I need to learn about that kind of grace.

Please God, help me to remember it’s all about you and not about me.

John 1 v 12-13
But to all who did accept him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God. 
They did not become his children in any human way—by any human parents or human desire. They were born of God.

Notes
C.S. Lewis once wandered into a heated debate about different religions. “What’s different about Christianity?” someone asked. “Oh, that’s easy,” said C.S. Lewis “It’s grace!” Bono of U2 recently said, “The idea of grace is the reason I would like to be a Christian.”

Every belief system has some concept of a higher power or deity, but only Jesus brought grace. He is “…the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14 v 6). But his name has become a swear word on the lips of the western world. 

My friends are generally quite happy to talk about a fluffy notion of God sat up in the clouds, but mention Jesus and they will suddenly look nervous. They get that glazed look of a rabbit caught in headlights. Why? Because Jesus is real, he’s tangible, and therefore he’s threatening. Many of my friends view Christianity as a set of rules, but anyone who knows God knows that the opposite is true. In the words of POD, “The world is a ghetto full of restrictive rules.” The media sets high standards in appearance, talent and career, but God loves us for who we are and sets us free when we believe in grace. The word “believe” appears 98 times in John’s gospel alone and is the only requirement for eternal life. 

Finding God is the most truly freeing experience. The more in love with him you become, the more your actions will reflect his love to others.

John 1 v 14
The Word became human and lived among us. We saw his glory—the glory that belongs to the only Son of the Father—and he was full of grace and truth. 

Notes
This verse just blows me away when I read it. I cannot expand on it or make any clever remarks. God is incredible and he loves me; he proved it by dying for me. 

We have a section on the 24-7 website where people post testimonies and answers to prayer (www.24-7talkback.com). One girl has been chatting anonymously on the site for a few months, and a week ago she wrote: “After months of umm-ing, arr-ing, and playing agnostic, I finally made my decision. I 'm home.”

No one chatting to her had realised she wasn’t a Christian, but she’d been seeking to learn all she could about this God everyone was talking about. Reading stories like that reminds me just how amazing God is. I never really had that first moment of realisation. For me, finding God was a gradual thing. The hunger and excitement for God that new Christians have is inspiring, but God’s hunger for us far outweighs our own: “God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life.” (John 3 v 16)


word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes