June 11, 2024 Devo

“Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, they are weak, but He is strong.” Do you remember that childhood song from Sunday School? Isn’t it funny how simple and uncomplicated our faith was back then? God loved us and we loved Him, and we knew He was always there for us. And we took the Bible at face value. Then we grew up and made it all messy.
That’s what was going on for Nicodemus. Jesus wasn’t teaching Nicodemus something new. He was teaching him something OLD. God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. Just as God breathed into us the breath of life in the Garden of Eden, He now wants to breathe into us the breath of His Holy Spirit to give us New Life. To help His People know how to live, God gave them some basic guidelines for living. The same kind of simple stuff that we teach our kids. Be nice. Play fair. Don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal. Love God, and love each other. It’s not rocket science.
But then people took those simple rules and started adding their own rules to them. They had to define “work” by coming up with some 39 categories of work, with hundreds of sub-categories. How crazy! Ask any 5-year-old what work is, and they can tell you. People took this simple relationship that God wanted with us and turned it into endless rules, complicated theology, and man-made hoops to jump through. It’s no wonder Nicodemus was lost when Jesus told Him it was as simple as being born again—born from above. God, in His love and grace, simply wants to breathe into us again the breath of His Holy Spirit. All we have to do is be willing to believe it and receive it.
So let me lay it out for you again. “Jesus loves you, this I know, for the Bible tells us so. Open your heart and to Him you’ll belong. His Spirit will live within you and keep you steady and strong.” Keep it simple. That’s God’s Word for you today.