Every day I write in my prayer journal. In addition to prayers for others, I include in that book my most personal thoughts, my failures, my hurts, my needs. Some of the entries record wonderful blessings. Others reveal times when I wrestle to understand God’s perspective on life.
When my husband and I first married, he told me how he struggled with being nosy as a child. He wanted to poke into private spaces of his parents’ lives. He solemnly promised never to violate the privacy of my prayer journal. He has kept that promise all these years.
At the start of John 8, Jesus was teaching in the temple when the scribes and Pharisees dragged in a young woman caught in the very act of adultery. Making her stand out in the middle of the courtyard, they asked him what they should do with her. The Jewish law was clear on the penalty for adultery, but Jesus said nothing. He simply bent down and began writing on the ground. The tips of his fingers pushed dirt this way and that.
For years, people have speculated about what he wrote on the ground. Was it the name of the woman’s partner in adultery? The message he wrote was for those standing there, not for us.
In Ch. 21, soon after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples by the Sea of Galilee. He revealed to Peter how the disciple would one day die for his faith. Looking around, Peter saw John nearby and asked Jesus what would become of him. Jesus replied, “What is that to you? Follow me!” In other words, it was none of Peter’s business.
Today, instead of asking what Jesus is doing in the lives of others, take time to ask yourself, ‘what is God’s message for me?’ How can you turn your life in a direction that takes you closer and closer to his Son?
