When push comes to shove most of us do not think nearly as highly of ourselves as our Lord thinks of us. In the closets of our own lives we really do not believe we deserve any of the multiples of good and great things which come our way. It is much easier to believe in blind luck than to rely on our position being found near to the heart of God.

It finally comes down to the need to be in submission to what God has in mind rather than to what I may or may not think about that as reality. Jesus, Son of man and God the Son submitted himself to the ministry of John the Baptizer because that was what his Father had in mind for him. We read in Mark 1.9-11: At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

John had known his cousin Jesus to be the Messiah for some time. He had been given to God before birth to be the one who was to introduce the Messiah into the world. But in Mark’s Gospel it is Jesus who gets the full picture. The Word continues: As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. Jesus saw the whole picture, maybe for the first time.

And then Father God completes the scene: And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’ It was not because Jesus dressed smartly or looked good that brought his Father pleasure. It was because Jesus was totally submitted to his Father’s will. God wants to be able to say those same words to each of us who follows Jesus today—he wants us to know that we please him. WOW!