Do you ever look at yourself and just get crushed because you feel like you don’t have what it takes to walk with God? You know that feeling where you just know that your sins are too bad - like you have come up with some brand-new, innovative way of sinning that this world has never seen? You ever felt sure that you’ll fail and fall apart before you get anywhere near heaven? You ever felt hopeless because you know you ought to be more sorry about your wrong than you actually are? I think a lot of us trying to walk with Jesus go through times where we think, “Man, I can’t do this. I am not going to make it. I just don’t have what it takes to be a child of God.” Well guess what? That’s exactly what Satan wants you to think. He wants you looking at yourself in the mirror, picking your whole life apart and dwelling on how much you suck at being a Christian. He wants all your thoughts to be turned inward on yourself so that you are your own worst critic, all the time. Here’s the deal: Of course you don’t have what it takes! Of course you don’t deserve the mercy and grace of God! Of course you’ve been a mess and you can’t do this on your own! That’s the whole point! That’s why the writer of Hebrews tells you to stop looking at yourself and keep your eyes peeled on Jesus. Jesus is the Author and Perfecter of your faith - in other words, He started this whole thing and He’s the One who’s going to finish it. You don’t have what it takes, and you don’t have to.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
79. He Alone Can Fill You Up
Do you ever catch yourself thinking, “If only I had _____, it would be enough.” Or how about this slight variation: “If only ______ would happen, I could finally be happy.” I’m pretty sure we all think or talk that way at times, but let me be really clear when I say that this line of thinking is a trap. It doesn’t work. There is no item out there somewhere that can finally satisfy you’re longing for more stuff. There is no amount of money that can finally make you feel safe and secure in this world. And, while you may not believe me on this, there is no relationship out there that can truly make you all-the-way happy way down in your heart. Those things simply weren’t designed to meet your deepest need. Here’s the deal: possessions, funds and that certain special someone can all be great things, and they can even scratch a certain itch for a certain amount of time, but they aren’t able to fill that enormous, gaping hole down inside your heart that sometimes feels like a wildfire burning out of control. In fact, when you try to satisfy your deepest longing with that stuff, it only makes you more dissatisfied. Nothing in this world can meet your deepest need because you are an eternal being designed to be filled up by all the infinity of God Himself. Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life.” In other words, he does for your heart what bread does for your hunger - He fills it, satisfies it and supplies you with everything you need for that day. And just like bread, you need to find Jesus fresh every morning so He can strengthen you again.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
78. He Believes In You
Do you have people in your life who tear you down and don’t believe in you? Oh dang, I know I just opened a can of worms for some of you. I mean, you can already see their face in your mind’s eye, can’t you? All I had to do was just suggest that thought and BAM! There they are inside your head. I bet some of you can even hear their voices taunting you... “When are you going to get it together?” “Why can’t you ever finish anything?” “You know, this is just like you.” “Well, I didn’t expect much from you anyway.” “Why can’t you be more like _____?” Oh man, you have spent so much time and so much of your life underneath the emotional oppression of that person’s verbal bullying, that you probably don’t even know who you are. Some of you probably spend most of your days contending with a voice in your head that constantly tells you how much you suck. When you begin something, you automatically assume it’s going to be a failure because that one person has never believed in you. I recently heard of a dad in my town who said of his own kid, “You like him? Well, I don’t know what you see in him.” and then he laughed as if this were the funniest thing in the world. Let me tell you something: Jesus sees something in you. Jesus believes in you. Jesus sees possibilities, character traits and talents in you that can change the world when He gets a hold of them and molds them. Jesus looked at the most unlikely punk and said, “Hey, I’m calling you ‘Rock.’ I’m going to build my whole church on you.”
Sunday, June 19, 2011
77. He Wants You To Tell Him
Okay, so here’s another reason you don’t ‘feel’ God in your life: Your prayer life means nothing to you. We’re both big enough people to be honest about this, right? You don’t really care all that much about prayer and so you don’t pray very often. As a result, you don’t feel very connected to Jesus emotionally. Well, that sort of makes sense, right? I mean, this thing with Jesus is supposed to be a relationship, but if you never really open up and talk with Him all that much, what kind of a relationship do you have? The real question is this: why are you so apathetic about prayer? I mean, the God of the universe has said, “You can talk to me anytime about anything and I will drop whatever I’m doing and just let you whisper in my ear.” What!? That’s amazing! Still, most of us don’t do it. Here’s what I think is going on: most people assume that Jesus only wants to hear so-called ‘important’ prayers about deep, serious issues and that we have to leave our petty wants and desires at the door. That’s just not true. Jesus wants to hear whatever is on your mind. One time Jesus asked a person, “What do you want me to do for you?” Folks, He’s dead serious about that question. It reminds me of a few weeks back, when my 5 year-old daughter scribbled (in her best spelling) the word “Cheetoh Balls” on our grocery list. The girl wanted Cheetohs and so she just put it on the list. Guess what happened - we went to the store and bought them. Seriously, go to Jesus with whatever is on your heart.
Friday, June 17, 2011
76. He Opened A Door No One Can Shut
Did you go too far this time? Did you cross the line? Did you do that thing that is so bad that Jesus Himself would point to the door telling you that you need to get out? I mean, everyone has a line, right? Everyone has their limit - even Jesus, right? When you think about what you did, (or just the fact that you did that same old thing yet again) it makes you sick, right? You probably feel like you’d rather Jesus just go ahead and scream and yell and throw things. I know this: all of that stuff is exactly what Satan wants you to think. He wants you to think that Jesus has a whole lot of mercy and forgiveness, but not that much. The Enemy wants you to think that Jesus can forgive just about anything, but that thing you did is in a whole other category of wrongness. That bitter old snake wants to convince you that the love and pardon of Jesus is basically limitless, except of course, when it comes to you and that thing you did. “Unfortunately, that is where Jesus will simply have to draw the line,” the Enemy will say. Do me a favor - tell that twisted, defeated jerk in your head to move on to someone else, because you’re done listening. Tell him this: “Jesus Christ, the Son of God gave His precious blood for me and the blood of God covers everything. The limitless love of God covers all my insane rebellions and Jesus has never turned me away!” Jesus said, “I have placed before you an open door no one can shut.” Sin, Satan and self may try, but that door’s staying wide open.
Monday, June 13, 2011
75. He's Free
Dang it, you did it again. You didn’t want to. You said you wouldn’t. You took steps to prevent it. You set up boundaries, but then you went around them all and did it again. What now? See, all of a sudden you’re feeling empty inside. You hate this thing you did, but after all this time, it just makes you feel nothing. The more time passes, you just start to feel dead and cold on the inside. For a while there, you were feeling close to the Lord, but now all of that seems like some kind of distant memory. You’re dry and immovable in your heart. How could you possibly go to God right now? You can’t, right? I mean, if you went to God, you’d have to drum up all of this repentance and sorrow, right? You’d have to feel all broken and remorseful; but what if you don’t feel that stuff right now? You can’t go to God pretending to be all contrite and penitent, because He knows if you’re insincere, so what in the world are you supposed to do?! Here it is: go right now to Jesus anyway. I know you feel cold and empty and you don’t feel anything like the kind of repentance that seems holy or whatever, but just go to Jesus and tell Him all of that straight up. At the very end of the whole Bible, Jesus says, “Whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” See, you get all of Jesus for free. It doesn’t take repentance. It doesn’t cost true and holy sorrow. Jesus will supply that. It costs you nothing. You just have to be willing. Why not go to Him right now?
Sunday, June 12, 2011
74. He Already Knows
Wanna know why you’re down? Wanna know why you feel ‘far away from God’ these days? Well, I’m gonna take a stab at it, and for a bunch of you folks out there reading, I’m gonna hit the nail on the head. Ready? The reason you’re so down and feel far away from God right now is that you are far away from Him. You see, some of you are carrying around secrets like you’re some kind of top-level government operative. You’ve got past sins and present struggles that follow you around like an oily, dark cloud and you don’t talk to anyone about them. You’re so ashamed, you don’t even talk to God about them. Of course, when you’ve done the sin, maybe you hang your head and tell Jesus you’re sorry and hope against hope that the cross covers this old sin the 50 millionth time around, but that’s not what I mean about talking to God about your struggle and sin. What I’m saying is that you’re far away from the Lord because you’re shutting Him out of your day-to-day life because it has temptation, struggle and wrong in it. Jesus wants to be close - like a best friend. He wants to be in on everything! We think we can’t talk to Him about the process leading up to our sin because He’d be so mad, but dang! He already knows everything anyway! Why not just include Him in the whole thing? One time a woman tried to wriggle out of telling Jesus her whole story and He brought it out anyway. I always imagine Him giggling. He already knows. He loves you anyway. Just bring Him right on in. It just might change everything.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
73. He Prays For You
The reason that some of you out there are having such a hard time in your spiritual walk right now is because you don’t realize how good you have it. More specifically, you don’t realize yet just how unbelievably awesome Jesus is. I mean, yeah, you love Jesus. Yeah, you’re thankful and blown away by the fact that He loved you enough to die for you. Yeah, you believe you’re going to heaven someday because of the price He paid and all that, but there’s a lingering something just behind the curtain of your life that is nagging at you... and here’s what it is: you still think Jesus just sort of tolerates you. Somewhere down in the deep places of your heart, you’re worried that although Jesus paid for you, He basically puts up with you and is probably annoyed with you and your cycles of struggle. In other words, in your mind, Jesus is kind of like a parent in a grocery store who’s in a hurry and you are just hustling along behind everyone else, trying frantically to keep up on your little toddler legs, knowing He’s frustrated with you ‘cause you’re holding everyone else up. Well, scratch all that. Flip it over... the truth is SO much better than that! Jesus not only loved you enough to die for you back in the day, but He passionately and desperately loves you still! He’s not running ahead begging you to keep up, but rather standing beside you walking every step with you. Did you know that Jesus prays for you? That’s right - He sits there beside God the Father and just pleads for you all day long. He doesn’t just tolerate you - He has your back.
