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A Prayer for Seeing Jesus Everywhere in the Bible

     ”Everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he [Jesus] opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Luke 24:44-47

Lord Jesus, I’ve always considered myself pretty “open-minded”; yet as I meditate on this remarkable scene in Luke’s Gospel, I realize I’m not nearly as opened-minded as you intend. Oh, to have been among these men, on the road to Emmaus, when you delivered the one Bible study any of us would’ve “killed” to hear (very figuratively speaking!) But by your Spirit, show us now, what you showed them then. Open our minds. Help us to see you everywhere in the Bible, Lord Jesus. Enable us read the law of Moses, the Prophets, and the psalms with you clearly in view—the point, hero and fulfillment.

For years I thought of the law only as a bunch of rules and principles by which I could earn God’s favor and blessings, or at least micromanage my life for greater success. Now I understand that the law was given to drive us to you, Jesus. It was never given as a basis of gaining or maintaining my relationship with God. You fulfilled the law for us, by your perfect obedience; and you exhausted the law’s judgment by your death on the cross. I wish I had understood this earlier in my walk with you.

I used to read the Prophets with a fear of judgment and great intrigue about the future ofIsrael. Now I realize that all of God’s promises point to you, Jesus. You are the “Yes” and “Amen” to every promise God has made. The gospel of your kingdom claims the entire cosmos, not just the Middle East—not justJerusalembut the New Jerusalem as well.

I’ve always loved the Psalms, but until recent years, I read them more with an appreciation for David than with adoration for you, Jesus. But you are the King installed by your Father, the one who inherits the nations and the ends of the earth (Psalm 2). Because you cried, “Father, Father, why have you forsaken me?” (Ps. 22), we now cry “Abba, Father, thank you for loving me!”

Indeed, Lord Jesus, continue to open our minds to understand how the entire Bible is a revelation of the gospel—the story of God’s commitment to redeem his people and restore the world by you, and through us. Show us more of you, and our place in your story. So very Amen we pray, in your peerless and praiseworthy name.

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