If you look at the context, you will not see that anyone had asked Jesus a question or that He was in conversation with anyone. Yet it is written, At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father.”
At That Time Jesus Said | Devotional
This is a strange way in which to begin a verse: At that time Jesus said. Some versions say, At that time, Jesus answered and said.
If you look at the context, you will not see that anyone had asked Jesus a question or that He was in conversation with anyone. Yet it is written, At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father.”
When someone answers, he responds to one who has been speaking to him. Who, then, had spoken to Christ? His Father! Yet there is no record of it, and this should teach us that Jesus had constant fellowship with His Father.
God spoke into His heart so often and so continually that it was not a circumstance noteworthy enough to be recorded. It was the habit and life of Jesus to talk with His Father.
Even as Jesus was in this world, so are we. Let us therefore learn the lesson that this simple statement concerning Him teaches us.
May we likewise have silent fellowship with the Father so that often we may answer Him, and though the world does not know to whom we speak, may we be responding to that secret voice, unheard by any other ear, which our own ear, opened by the Spirit of God, recognizes with joy.
God has spoken to us; let us speak to God – to set our seal that God is true and faithful to His promise, to confess the sin of which the Spirit of God has convicted us, to acknowledge the mercy that God’s providence has given, or to express assent to the great truths that God the Holy Spirit has opened to our understanding.
What a privilege it is to have intimate communion with the Father of our spirits! It is a secret hidden from the world, a joy that even the nearest friend cannot understand.
If we want to hear the whispers of God’s love, our ear must be clear and ready to listen to His voice. May our hearts be in such a state this very evening that when God speaks to us, we, like Jesus, may be prepared at once to answer Him.