All We Have is the Lord

The Ruler of this World appears
And he possesses nothing in me
John 14:30

This verse is from John's account of the passion of Jesus. Jesus was talking to his disciples and he was telling them that soon, he will be gone. And he told them about this so that when this happened, they will maintain their confidence in Jesus.

From my reflection of this, Jesus was telling them to expect the Ruler of this World to appear. The disciples will see the effects of his works and very often, this will seem that God has lost control. But Jesus reminded the disciples that the enemy can never, ever possess anything that belongs to Jesus. Jesus is still in control.

As I prayed over this, I realize that indeed, there will be times in our life when all the things that we hold dear will be lost. God will seem to be indifferent or worse, absent in our difficulties. But we take comfort in the words of Jesus that the enemy will never possess anything that belongs to Jesus.

When these times come, we have to take an attitude of humility before the Lord. We look at ourselves to see whether this situation was caused by our neglect or not. If we honestly see that the situation we are in is not due to our neglect or sin, we can take comfort that this is God's purifying work.

For those truly committed to the Lord, they grow every day - little by little. This growth is often characterized by the Lord's purging actions. He very often comes and purges us of whatever hinders us from knowing him more at that specific point in our relationship with him. The things that hinder us from knowing him more could be things that were beneficial to us before (like our children, people who helped us know the Lord, people whom we think have done a lot for the Lord, our devotions to the Lord, even the charismatic gifts that the Lord gave us). But sooner or later, we have to let go of all these attachments so that we can focus more on the Lord. Our main goal in life is to know Jesus and all these attachments that we have are nothing compared to the Him.

At first glance, when God's purifying love comes, things may seem to be dark and scary. But we should always remember, that even if the enemy appears - and he will appear often in our lives - he still cannot take what is not his. The irony is that when the enemy takes away everything, all we have is the Lord. And that is more than enough for us.

As we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, we remember that indeed, God is in control - and that he is the only person that matters in our lives.