1. When spending time with the Lord or as you go throughout your day, when accusations or guilt or self-condemnation rises up, make a conscious effort to focus on facets of God’s glory that these things might remind you of.
Example: Often in the mornings as I seek to connect with the Lord, I am flooded with self-recrimination for all sorts of things – spiritual and mundane. I can feel guilt over what I ate or how I spent my time, or think of how many times I didn’t pray when I could have or didn’t reach out to someone when I should have – the list goes on and on. What I have learned to do instead is to acknowledge my weakness or sin, but then immediately affirm what is true about God in light of it. I might read Scripture or sing an old hymn or simply wait in His presence as I contemplate His glory until revelation comes and I know that sense of well-being in His presence.
2. Approach Scripture with the question: Lord, what does this tell me about You? Once you see something, ask for greater revelation about it. Study other Scriptures, meditate on it and interact with Him over what you are seeing.
Example: In our John 1:20-26 passage, how many things can you find about the character or ways or attributes of God? Spend time carefully reading, writing down everything you see. Try to identify what would be true even if you did not exist (this helps keep us from making ourselves the center). I have been deeply moved in pondering this passage, at the reality that Christ prays for me, but to go deeper, I have been asking – what does the fact that Christ is One who prays for others tell me about His nature, His ways, His glory – about who He is?
3. When you begin to grasp some facet of Christ’s nature in a deeper way, seek to revel in His love, letting this one thing settle upon you like a warm blanket. Ask God to manifest His presence in some way as you wait upon Him.
Example: From the John 17 passage I have been pondering the truth that Jesus has desires, and that He intends to have His desires fulfilled (see Strong’s definition of ‘desire’). I’ve looked at what those desires are, and asked Him why this matters so much to Him. I’ve meditated on His intimacy with His Father and how that gave Him the confidence that He would have what He desired. After a few days of looking at the nature of God in that one phrase, I begin to consider what it means to me – what the reality that Christ desires for me to be with Him to see His glory says about His love and our relationship. I cannot even begin (as I noted in the devotional) to express the wonder of this, and the depths of love I have experienced in light of these truths. I often return to what He has shown me, asking Him to make it settle into every fiber of my being.
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