I hope that you find this kids message useful to you. Sometimes I think we can get caught up in the nitty gritty details of Jesus’ life and we forget about the fact He was the plan from the start. He was always the only way back to God and still remains that way now.
I want to take us to John’s gospel and just read some statements that Jesus said about himself:
I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE
I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
I AM THE DOOR
I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD
I AM THE RESSURRECTION AND THE LIFE
I AM THE WAY THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE
I AM THE TRUE VINE
Maybe this would make a good Bible study, because each of these statements could be a sermon in themselves, but I think it’s important to point out that statements like these are what differentiates Jesus in Matthew, Mark and Luke with Jesus in John’s gospel.
Matthew, Mark and Luke contain stories about Jesus that are challenging and quite clearly prove Jesus’ divine nature. They are good reads. They are fantastic for showing us how to implement the way of Jesus into our every day lives. They are ace teaching points. But the way that Jesus speaks about himself in John’s gospel is different entirely. His words are absolutely ground breaking. His I AM statements point back and reference the old testament and by doing so, Jesus is making it quite clear that He was always the plan.
Even the use of His words ‘I AM’ would have grated against the religious leaders at the time. God revealed His name to Moses as Yahweh, or…I AM WHO I AM. Using I AM is unquestionably referencing God’s own description of himself in the Old Testament and Jesus using these words would have been insulting, blasphemous and, obviously, worthy of death.
This (REFERENCE PICTURE) is old news to many of us here. We worshipped Jesus for years, decades even. Yet so often we turn ourselves into the ‘I AM’. So often, we put ourselves in the place of God and when we do that, it’s like the barrier is right back up again.
I AM too busy
I AM too tired
I AM over committed
I AM afraid of silence
I AM not good in solitude
All of these boil down to this one lie.
I AM IN CONTROL.
And there it is. There. It. Is. The barrier goes up. God is unaccessible. Jesus dies on that cross again.
Practically, though, how do we let go of control? To reference Mum’s devotional from a previous week…how do we not make plans? Do you know what, I don’t think making plans for the future is the type of control that puts ourselves in God’s place. No, I think it is digging in of our heels when our plans don’t go how we expected that is when we start finding ourselves trying to override God’s plan.
I strongly believe that the only way of letting go of control in the moment is by reconnecting ourselves to God via Jesus’ death and resurrection.
I realise that this sounds like spiritual jargon, and to be honest, when I wrote it I thought it sounded quite pro…until I started to think about how we actually practically reconnect ourselves to god via jesus’ death and resurrection.
Here’s my best suggestion. Take a breath. Look up at the vastness of the sky. Recall God’s own words about himself: I AM WHO I AM. God will do what He will do. Surrender, pray and continue.
