You Are Not Just Energy: Knowing Jesus, Not an 'It'

Pause this week on that central question Charles Redwine named: do you know who you serve? It is easy, in the rush of ordinary life or the swirl of opinions online, to shrink faith down to just another feeling, phrase, or spiritual energy. But the Word speaks over and over: you are called to be a daughter, a son, a person who knows not just ritual or tradition, but a living Savior.

What if you spent this week watching for ways you are tempted to settle for the vague or impersonal? Notice when 'God' slips into the background, vague and unchallenging, or when your faith turns into running on memory instead of meeting Jesus afresh. 1 John is relentless about this word: know. Not feeling, not guessing, not hoping someone else has it all figured out. You are invited to belong, to know, and to be known.

When Charles Redwine told the story of a co-worker pushed closer to faith not by arguments, but by his persistent joy in Christ, it was a gentle reminder for us: when you live as a child of God, people notice, even when they cannot name what is different yet. Let your simple faith, the kind that sings while working, echo beyond these walls.

Meditation Focus: Today, offer up the question, "Jesus, what does it mean for me to really know you, here, now, in this day?" Sit with it; let it unsettle routines. Let it draw you beyond mere belief into honest relationship.

Practical Step: Choose one day this week to read 1 John 3:1-3 and Philippians 3:8-11 aloud. Pray slowly over the words, underline what stirs you. Tell God directly where you feel distant or doubtful. Ask for the desire to know Him more deeply, not just know about Him.

Closing Prayer:

God, you are worthy of our full-hearted trust. You are not a distant force or nameless spirit, but the One who made us and calls us by name. You have set before us the gift of knowing you, of turning and being found as daughters and sons near your heart.

Today, we admit how easily we drift, how quickly we trade the living Christ for routine, how we settle for energy when you offer relationship. We ask you to provide what we need to come close: open ears, soft hearts, courage to pray and seek you when we feel dull or doubting. Feed us with truth and grace. Forgive us when we try to earn what you so freely offer or when we hide behind distractions. Deliver us from treating faith like a checklist.

Lead us into the kind of life that cannot stay hidden: loving like Jesus, serving not for show but from genuine transformation. Give us a joy that is stubborn and a witness that is gentle. Keep us ready for the day you call us home and let us walk every day until then as your beloved children. Amen.