We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father. (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 NASB)

There's a Maori proverb that says "turn your eyes to the sun and the shadows fall behind you". How true! What keeps us going is often the knowledge that there is something better ahead. 

What do we do when things are hard? Do we give up or can we be like the writer of Hebrews when he says "let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith". Jesus could see beyond the cross and saw the eternal joy which was there for him. 

What do we look at?

Are we focussed on our circumstances and allow them to drag us down and cause us to lose hope? Or, are we able to look the other way, to let the shadows fall behind us as we look to the source of our life? Are we able to lift our eyes and put our hope in him? Hope is an expectation or desire for a particular thing to happen. As we hope in him we have set out on a journey that leads to our freedom and salvation. 

There's a quote I like (which only works in English): "You gotta have hope. Without hope life is meaningless. Without hope life is meaning less and less". 

When I talk about hope it is not a human hope where we want everything to work out the right way. It is the assurance that believes all his promises are "yes and amen". It is, like Abraham, a desire to discover the city whose architect and builder is God (Hebrews 11:10). It is a belief that we can see things "that are not as though they were" (Romans 4:17).

It is a hope that comes out of love. The foundation of his love in our lives. It's a hope we experience once we have placed our trust and dependency on him, knowing that his love is all we need to sustain and carry us. After all, "faith, hope and love remain; but the greatest is love. Therefore pursue love.... " (1 Corinthians 13:13-14:1).

Turn your face to the Son and let the shadows of life fall behind you.   

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:1-5 NASB)

Last week I talked about choosing life. Sometimes that's not an easy thing to do, particularly when we are disappointed or going through a season of suffering. 

As Jesus approached the cross he asked his Father to "save him from this hour". He knows, however, that there is no other way so he willingly submits himself to what lies ahead in order to bring glory to his Father (John 12:27-28). He could have run, but he choose to embrace his suffering. 

We don't know everything about King David's life but we do know he'd suffered a lot of misunderstanding and rejection. Somehow, through it all, he remained focussed on God, his Father, and this enabled him to write psalms of worship, love and adoration. He could have run, but he choose to embrace his suffering. 

The truth is, we too suffer disappointment and experience suffering. We are let down by people, we are hurt, we are taken advantage of, we lose heart and become weary. 

We can run from it or we can embrace it. 

We can respond by holding it at a distance and building defences around our heart which will ultimately lead to a hard heart. We can take it into us and drown in self pity, often leading to shame and condemnation. Or we can have hope. A hope that is rooted and grounded in him, which then becomes an open door allowing him to pour his love freely into our open heart. 

If you are feeling the weight of disappointment can I first encourage you to look to him. Trust him, put your hope in him. He is there to carry you through your suffering and disappointment. The situation may not change or go away but it will diminish when we focus on him rather than on our troubles. 

James encourages us to "consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds". That sounds tough. It will be if we try and face it on our own but when we go through things with him we discover that his joy begins to full our heart. 

At the end of Job, after all the suffering and turmoil there is a beautiful revelation that comes out of Job's transformed heart and dependency on God. He'd experienced a loving Father. 

"Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me. 'My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you'". 

Living with disappointment or going through a season of suffering is not easy. My encouragement is to put your hope in him, that hope will not disappoint you. It is the way our heart becomes open to receive his love. 

See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them......So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them. (Deuteronomy 30:15-17,19-20 NASB)

I believe we face a daily choice, in fact it may be a choice we have to make several times each day. Moses sets this choice out very clearly for the people of Israel and concludes by encouraging them to choose life. 

Choosing life may not be automatic and it's certainly not our default setting. We have a stark choice: choose dependence on him and find life or follow the pathway of independence which leads to something inside of us dying. We think independence and self-sufficiency is something to be strived for as we think it will lead to freedom. The opposite is true. Freedom, true freedom, is only found when we are totally dependent on him. 

Love always gives a choice. Sometimes it's not easy to choose life because the pain and brokenness of our heart can overwhelm us. On those times when, for one reason or another, we don't choose life the choice is not taken from us as Father always provides another opportunity to come back home. He is the Father of the second chance. 

Jeremiah 31:3 tells us we are loved with an everlasting love. An eternal love that began in the heart of the Father before time began, a love that has run through all of history, a love that is loving us now and one that will continue to love us for all of eternity yet to come. Everlasting love is not something we are used to. Love, to us, has an on/off switch. It's dependent on us, on others or on our circumstances. 

As we read through Jeremiah 31 we see how this love works a transformation in us. It rebuilds the broken places, it gathers us, it provides for us and it gives us hope for our future. Towards the end of the chapter we see how this external love flows from an eternal covenant. 

"I will be their God and they will be my people". 

When this is quoted in the New Testament we are given a much more personal promise.....

"I will be a Father to you and you will be my sons and daughters".

Because we are held in the Father's everlasting love let us choose life. After all, Jesus came that we might have life and life in all its fulness. That's abundant and complete life. 

I'll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands. (Ezekiel 36:27 The Message)

I ended our meditation on John 17 by saying we will be motivated, or compelled, to walk in his ways and to delight in doing his will. 

Many who try hard to walk in his ways and do his will end up becoming discouraged as they feel it is an impossible task. Well it is. It's impossible to do this is our own strength. We can try, and for a time we may succeed. We see fruit and experience God's blessing for a season and feel we are being successful. Whenever we do anything in our own strength or through our own effort we will, ultimately, end up becoming worn out. 

And yet, we are taught that doing his will is a good thing. 

When we see with the eyes of our mind we see what he does, so we imitate this and as a result we end up living a works based life, seeking to please him through our activity. 

When the eyes of our heart are opened we see who he is. When we see him, we are changed. Paul prays, in Ephesians 1, that we would receive a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of who God really is. We start to see him as the Glorious Father. 

Not only do we receive a new heart and a new spirit, we also receive the gift of the Father's spirit. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit who lives within us that causes us to do the very things we find so hard in our own strength. The Holy Spirit empowers us to live like Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to cry out "Abba, Father". It is the Holy Spirit who sets us free from the law of sin and death that, for so long, has prevented us from walking in his ways. 

Anything we do for him must flow out of our relationship with him. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14, it is good  to desire spiritual gifts but more important is making love our greatest aim. Living in love is walking as Jesus walked and, as we do, we will discover we automatically delight in doing his will.

I have revealed to them who you are and I will continue to make you even more real to them, so that they may experience the same endless love that you have for me, for your love will now live in them, even as I live in them! (John 17:26 TPT)

Over the last few weeks, I have been looking at how Jesus revealed his Father and how this was the central purpose of his time on earth. John 17 is his final prayer before he is led away to the cross and, as we've looked at it together, I hope you can see how it represents a summary of Jesus' life and ministry. 

He has shown us what the Father is like, he has given us the Father's words of eternal life, he has demonstrated how we can live in love and he wants us to be with him where he is. 

Now, at the end of his prayer, Jesus concludes with these words: "in order that the love you have for me may be in them".

Jesus concludes his earthly ministry by reassuring us that he has made his Father known and that he will continue to make him known. We are not left in any uncertainty, Jesus will continue revealing his Father to us, to you and me. 

It's a very powerful statement. You and I are loved by God, the Father, in exactly the same way as he loves Jesus. No if's or but's, just unconditional love which is totally dependent on him and not in any way on us. 

We can't earn his love, we can't make him love us any more through our actions or words. We can't stop him loving us. We are loved as he loves Jesus. 

Should this revelation make us lazy Christians? Of course not! It changes our hearts so much that we find we are motivated, or compelled, to walk in his ways and therefore to delight in doing his will (Ezekiel 36:27 and Psalm 40:8). 

The revelation (or series of revelations) we've looked at from John 17 really do present us with a clear picture of the gospel. To me, it is so simple, we are loved by the perfect Father who wants to be a Father to us. 

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. (John 17:24 NIV)

In John 17, Jesus is praying to his Father and giving an account of the things he has accomplished during his time on earth. It reads like the completion, or fulfilment, of a mission statement: "This is what you sent me to do and this is what I have done".

The prayer contains an important list of things the Son has done is making his Father known. ​

"I want those you have given me to be with me where I am". As we read through this chapter we see how Jesus has shown what the Father is like, he has given us the Father's words of eternal life and he shows how we can live like the Trinity.

And now we are given a personal invitation. An invitation to be with Jesus where he is. 

Well, before we accept this invitation we need to know where Jesus is. Right now, in this present moment, where is he? That's where we're invited to be. 

We read in John 1:18 that Jesus came from the bosom, or side, of the Father. Once again a picture of intimacy; a son leaning against his father's heart. In John 14, we read that Jesus is going back home, to his Father's house and then he and the Father, through the Holy Spirit, will return and make their home with us. 

This is the invitation: we are invited to be at home with the Father. To be at his side, leaning against his heart. 

This is an invitation and, as such, it requires a response. It's Jesus' desire to take us where he is but he leaves us with a choice - do we want to be at home with the Father?

It's a question we can only answer for ourselves. We can look from afar or we can draw near and allow our hearts to come home. 

My encouragement is for you to come home. Allow yourself to be drawn into that place of intimacy with the Father. Allow Jesus to take you to the Father, his Father and your Father. 

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.​ (John 17:22-23 NIV)

In John 17, Jesus is praying to his Father and giving an account of the things he has accomplished during his time on earth. It reads like the completion, or fulfilment, of a mission statement: "This is what you sent me to do and this is what I have done".

The prayer contains an important list of things the Son has done is making his Father known. ​

​"That they may be one, as we are one". The life that is in Jesus is in us. The relationship Jesus has with his Father is imparted to us, we can have the same intimate relationship, with the Father, that Jesus had. 

When Jesus prays that we may be one, we often think that he is talking about our relationships with one another. I believe that is correct. But as I've meditated on this verse, I wonder if there is another interpretation or meaning to Jesus' words. What about us being one with him in the same way that Jesus is one with him?

Having prayed that we may be one he then expresses his desire for us to be involved, or to live in, the unity of the Trinity. He really wants us to know that we are in him as much as he is in us. It is a profound description of unity and intimacy. This is not a distant relationship, but the closest of Father-Son relationships and we are invited to participate. 

As Jesus accounts to his Father for the things he has accomplished, he is clear that we have been enabled to live like the Trinity live. A life of intimacy and unity is one of rest and peace. It is a fulfilled life. 

I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. (John 17:14 NIV)

In John 17, Jesus is praying to his Father and giving an account of the things he has accomplished during his time on earth. It reads like the completion, or fulfilment, of a mission statement: "This is what you sent me to do and this is what I have done".

The prayer contains an important list of things the Son has done is making his Father known. ​

​"I have given them your word". It must have been an amazing sight when Jesus read from Isaiah 61 in the synagogue in Nazareth. He was basically reading about himself and having done so he simply sat down. He did not need to preach a sermon or try and explain what he'd read. He just said "today this is fulfilled". Simple, yet powerful. He was the Word of God, reading the Word of God about the Word of God. 

Jesus said the words he spoke were not his own words but they came from his Father (John 12:49). He was a true ambassador, speaking on behalf of another. If we are to know the Father, we have to understand this. Everything Jesus said was, in effect, his Father speaking. The words we have recorded in the gospels are the words of the Father, spoken to us through Jesus. 

In coming to earth, Jesus became the Word of God made flesh, coming as a man, becoming the Father's mouthpiece. The words he spoke give us the gift of life and that life is meant to be full or abundant. It is total and complete, not a half measure. There was a time when the crowds were all deserting Jesus and he asks his disciples if they, too, will leave him. Peter replies: "Where else can we go, you have the words of eternal life".

We have a Father who is always ready to speak to us with words that will bring life, his words will change our lives. Do we have ears that are listening to the Father's voice? He is speaking to each one of us.

I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. (John 17:6 NIV)

In John 17, Jesus is praying to his Father and giving an account of the things he has accomplished during his time on earth. It reads like the completion, or fulfilment, of a mission statement: "This is what you sent me to do and this is what I have done".

The prayer contains an important list of things the Son has done is making his Father known. 

"I have revealed you", a number of other translations say "I have revealed your name". This is much more than a formal introduction of one person to another. Jesus is saying that he has revealed the complete personality, nature and character of his Father. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Jesus is the exact representation of the Father. Throughout his life, Jesus has shown us exactly what the Father is like. Indeed, at the end of this chapter we read that Jesus goes on revealing the Father. 

Moses caught a glimpse of what God was like but we see the complete picture of who he is. Jesus healed people, the Father heals. Jesus cared for the marginalised in society, the Father cares for them too. Jesus valued and affirmed people, the Father does too. Jesus provided for people, our Father is a provider. 

Too often, we try and form a picture of what God is like by taking historical or stereotypical images and thinking they are a good picture of God. Why do we do that when we have the life and example of Jesus who was the exact image of the Father?

In Matthew 11:25-27 we are told that we can know the Father, Jesus will reveal him to us. No longer is the Father hidden, he has clearly made himself known to us.

For too long we have thought of God as being distant, angry and unknowable. This is not the case. He is our loving Father and he wants to be a Father to you. 

"Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God." (John 16:25-27 NIV)

I often think that the disciples must have found the conversation over their last meal with Jesus quite confusing. After all, they are just ordinary guys, fishermen with little education who have had their lives radically changed by being with Jesus. I imagine they felt a bit lost when Jesus was talking about them being in him and him being in them (John 14). Maybe they didn't really understand what Jesus was talking about when he said he was going back to his Father and then they would return and make their home in the disciples' hearts. These ordinary men were taking part in a conversation that had never taken place before. 

And now, Jesus tells them he will start speaking clearly to them instead of in complicated pictures. What a relief!

The very next thing Jesus tells the disciples is probably one of the clearest, yet most profound, statements in the whole Bible:

"The Father himself loves you"

Pause for a moment and let those words sink into your heart. 

We are loved by the Father. Jesus explains to his disciples (and therefore to us as well) that we have direct access to the Father; like any child we can come to our Father at any time of the day or night, 24/7. 

In fact, Jesus goes further at the end of John 17. We are loved by the Father in exactly the same way and with the same intensity of passion that he loves Jesus. This, Jesus tells us, is the reason he came to earth. He came to reveal his Father in order that we may know the Father himself loves us. That is good news!