All of these devotionals are the result of my own personal reflection on God's word. If you find these devotionals helpful, please subscribe and share them! Thank you for reading!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

John 21:12

Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.

A curious thing happens after Jesus is raised from the dead; His appearance is altered so that he is no longer recognizable by the 12 disciples, those who walked with him daily and were closest to him.  And yet, despite such an altered appearance, the disciples knew with absolute certainty that they were in his presence although they were unable to recognize him. Even though the question "Who are you?" flickered on their minds, none of them dared ask it for inwardly they knew it was the LORD.  Why, then, are we so often surprised that when we search for God he doesn't show up how we expect him to?

Had the disciples only looked with their eyes, they might have missed Jesus standing on the beach altogether because they were looking for something else.  Sometimes Jesus just doesn't look the way we want him to or act the way we expect, but if our view of who Jesus is and what he will do is so narrow, we often will miss the answers to our prayers.  The ability to discern God's presence comes only from walking closely with the LORD, just as when you spend so much time with someone you can just tell when they approach by the rhythm of their footsteps.

Can you hear the LORD approaching to just know when you are in his presence?  If not, you may just miss breakfast.

2 comments:

  1. I still have an e-mail subscription, and I'm glad you're posting again, John. :)

    It hit me the other day as I was reflecting on the mysteries of Easter that after Christ died and rose again, it suddenly became difficult for the disciples to recognize Him. We can only speculate why God chose to make things that way. But it's also interesting to note that after the Resurrection, Christ came to dwell within His disciples. If we think about our failure to recognize Jesus in terms of the number of times we pass by His children on the streets (in whom His spirit dwells) without recognizing them, the concept may not seem quite so strange anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's also a great insight, Po-ling! Thanks for sharing! Life threw me a loop for a while but I hope to get back in the swing of things, so thank you for your faithful readership :)

    ReplyDelete