John 6:44 (NLT)
For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up.
John 6:65 (NLT)
Then he said, “That is why I said that people can’t come to me unless the Father gives them to me.”
John 3:6-8 (NLT)
Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”
John 3:16 (NLT)
For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Quite simply, the world’s most famous verse. Billions around the globe can quote it. Millions can relate in more than one language. A few even live it. You see it as close as the bumper on the car in front of you and as far away as a soccer match in Europe (maybe that one is just me). But before we can “believe in him,” we must first be drawn to that belief. Drawn to him. Therefore, those previous fifteen verses in the third chapter of John are just as powerful and the more prolific sixteenth verse.
GOD is spirit. So he operates on a different playing field than us. He blows where, and how, he wants. He possesses all of the control. He reveals himself to whomever he desires, whenever he desires, and however he desires. When he blows through our heart, and we witness Jesus as the treasure he is, we can believe in, then walk with him.
Jesus reemphasizes this further with those scriptures from chapter six. We can’t magically produce a relationship with Jesus. We can’t change our life using our focused willpower. We can’t alter our mindset and self-destructive behaviors. We can’t even realize how sin-stained and broken we are…but GOD can. And he chooses to both reveal it to us and rescue us from it. Praise GOD!
Whether through the devotion or the sunrise, GOD is drawing you to him this morning. Take a moment to thank him for the gift that is.
