"Show me Your way, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day." Psalm 25: 4-5

At That Day. . .

            Jesus, speaking to the Father said, "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world.  They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.  Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You."  John 17: 6-7.

            Had Jesus' followers always kept God's word?  Had they always understood that the things Jesus said to them were given to Him by God?  Actually, in the chapters just previous to this one, the apostles had asked Jesus questions that proved themselves pretty dull in their understanding of Him.

            "Lord, why can I not follow you now?" asked Peter. 

            "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?" asked Thomas.

            "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us," said Philip.

            To which Jesus replied, wearily, I imagine, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?"  (John 14)

            So how do we reconcile Jesus' words in chapter seventeen, "they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You," with His words to Philip in chapter fourteen?  I believe the answer lies in the following words Jesus spoke to the disciples just after addressing their doubt-filled questions.

            "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live you will live also.  At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you."  John 14:19-20 (emphasis mine).

            I suggest that just as Abram, because he, "believed in the Lord and He accounted it to him for righteousness," (Gen. 15: 6), and just as Noah, Sarah, Isaac, and the many others listed in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter eleven, had their actions counted to them for righteousness before they had an understanding of what those actions meant in the whole scheme of things, so the disciples had their future understanding and acceptance of truth that would come to them "at that day," counted to them as righteousness.

            Does it bless you as much as it does me that God chooses to see us in the light of the understanding we will have in the future?  Wouldn't it be wonderful if people saw us like that, measured us like that, believed in us like that? 

            Think about it, have you ever had someone in your life, a friend, a teacher, a parent, or a pastor perhaps, who believed in you enough to always think the best of you instead of automatically assuming the worst about you?  Those people are few and far between, so perhaps you have not.  However, if you have, I will guarantee that you have always been your best self for that person simply because you didn't want to disappoint him or her. And isn't it always in the presence of those people who are determined to believe the best about us that we are the most teachable?  Isn't it?

            Thank God if you have a person like that in your life, one who loves you enough to believe the best about you, even when you know you don't deserve it.  But if you don't have such a person, know that God and His Son, Jesus, always choose to believe the best about you.      

            Does that mean that, since God already sees you in light of who you will someday become that you have no responsibility to change your current wrong beliefs and actions? No, absolutely not!  Does it mean that because God chooses to believe the best about other people that we can let Him do all of that while we sit back and judge and criticize?  Again, no, absolutely not!  And believe me when I say, I'm talking to myself here just as much as to anyone else who might read this.  Conviction is heavy on me as I write these words.

            I wonder how it would change the people around us (and the world!), if we chose to believe the best instead of the worst about people?  I think today is "that day" for us to start.  And let's keep each other accountable on this one, shall we?  Ask me how I'm doing with this from time to time, okay?  And I'll do the same for you.

Daye Phillippo

March, 2010