277. He Wants To Make A Home In You

John 14:23

Do you know what lonely feels like? Have you ever felt the restless sadness of not having anyone who gets you or really understands you? Do you long to have someone awesome who just wants to be with you or around you? One of the hardest things that happens in life is when a relationship changes or ends. Someone was in your life and you had a connection with them, but then something happened and now it's just different. Maybe you've never had that person in the first place and you long to know what it feels like to be truly understood, accepted and wanted. If you've ever felt this way, I have some unbelievable news for you. Jesus wants to make a permanent home in your heart. He wants to live in you in such a way that you are best friends and never separated even for a second for the rest of your life. When you love Jesus, the most incredible thing happens, where the miracle of Bethlehem and that first Christmas is repeated in your own life. The infinite God who started galaxies spinning and spread out explosive oceans of stars by simply calling out their names makes Himself small. The One who conquered death and hell and holds all power, potential, history and future in the palm of His hands becomes so small that He can hide in the darkest corners of your heart. The One who made you, loves you eternally and understands you completely walks the halls of your heart and mind as if it were His home sweet home so that you always have Him when you need Him. You always have a best friend who gets you. 

276. He Comes After You

John 10:28

Do you ever feel like your Christian life depends entirely on you? Sometimes it feels like the whole thing is resting on the thin ice of your personal consistency or devotion, right? Do you ever think that a bad day or a few skipped quiet times puts your whole relationship with Jesus on the skids? If so, you’re not alone. So many folks see it this way. We’re told to cling to the Lord, to follow Him and to remain faithful. The thing is, all that stuff is good, but it’s very important that in the midst of all that you remember something else that’s very important: the status of your relationship with Jesus does not depend on what you do or don’t do. Jesus started this relationship. It wasn’t your idea. You didn’t choose Him. He wanted you. Before He said, “Let there be light” He knew He wanted you and picked you to be His very own. Jesus pursued you first. He set His heart on you and chased you down through the depths of your hurt, wrong, pain and madness. He fought sin, death and hell to have you and He said that nothing can ever snatch you out of His hand. You’re not holding onto Him. He’s holding on to you. John tells us Jesus “had to go through Samaria” because He was chasing someone down. He went to find a blind man He had healed just to encourage Him. He sought out sinners, the poor, the oppressed and us. He left Heaven on a mission of love to give us the thing we could never earn, no matter how devoted or consistent we think we are. This grace you stand in doesn’t depend on you.

275. He Made You Specifically To Do Something Amazing

Matthew 4:19

Have you ever felt like you don’t really have an obvious place in the Kingdom? Do you know what it’s like to see everyone else fit right in, but you don’t really know what God has for you? Are you ever afraid that He doesn’t really have anything for you at all? Have you ever thought that God really can’t use you because you don’t think you have anything to offer? Well, even though I may not know you, I can promise you that whoever you are, God has something tailor-made for you. There is something beautiful and eternally significant that God prepared for you to carry out and He wants you to find that thing. When Jesus was recruiting His team of guys who would one day change the world, He didn’t approach Peter by saying, “Come follow me and I will make you a preacher and a missionary.” No, He said, “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people.” Peter had spent his entire childhood in boats and in the water, dragging nets and casting lines, setting hooks and catching fish. It was his whole life. He knew where to find fish, how to approach them and how to bring them in. Jesus didn’t waste that training. As a pastor and church planting missionary, Peter had to know how to approach people, cast a message and bring people in. Jesus used everything in Peter’s life to make Him useful in the Kingdom. Jesus has something for you too, and He made you for it. Your personality, your history, your hurts and your victories are all leading to something. Jesus is going to turn your story into the story.

274. He Defends You When No One Understands You

John 12:7

Some folks in your life don’t understand your relationship with Jesus, right? I mean, there’s no doubt that the Lord coming into your life has made you more patient, kind and devoted as a friend, sibling or child; but still, some people in your life just don’t get it. They think you’re weird for giving your time and resources the way you do. They think you’re selling yourself short by committing yourself so fully to Someone you’ve never seen with your eyes. The strange thing is that for some folks, the biggest opposition they face in walking with Jesus is from other Christians. Folks in your family or in your community who claim to be Christians, but see the way you’re living your life and become suddenly uncomfortable. They say all this Jesus stuff is “fine up to a point” but it seems to them that you’re taking this too far. Well, if you know what it feels like to endure scrutiny and even ridicule over your love for Jesus, you should know that you’re in very good company. During Jesus’ last week before the crucifixion, a dinner party was held for Him in the city of Bethany. During the meal, a woman named Mary came in, broke open a bottle of perfume worth thousands of dollars and poured it on Jesus as an act of love and worship. All the guys at the table started to question her, becoming angry and even berating her - and they were the Lord’s own disciples. Jesus defended her devotion. He defended her love. Even if no one else in this world understands the love you have for Jesus, He knows. He gets it. He loves your love for Him.

273. He Knows There's A Solution, But Not Always A Reason

John 9:3

Sometimes, when a terrible thing happens in your life, you wonder what you did to cause it, right? I know I’m not the only person who feels this way. A tragedy strikes, a situation goes south, and the first thing you do is think back through your week to see what big sin you did that God is punishing you for. We all do it. We all assume that problems and pains happen as a result of our wrong. We think that God is sitting up in Heaven smiting people for their sins by ruining their day or complicating their life. On the one hand, it seems to make sense, but the more you actually think about it, the more that logic falls apart. If God punished us for the wrong things we do, say and think, we’d be obliterated. There wouldn’t be enough time in the day for all the smiting. The truth is, we live in a fallen world and crappy stuff just happens sometimes. I know that doesn’t solve your problem, but it is true. Sometimes the answer to “Why did that horrible thing have to happen?” is that there is no answer, we just live in a broken world. One time Jesus met a man who was born blind and people asked Him, “Who sinned? Was it him or his parents?” Jesus said that his blindness wasn’t the result of anyone’s sin. Sometimes these things just happen. The amazing thing was that Jesus then healed the man. God isn’t punishing you for your sin, but He does want to work in your life. He wants to change you. There may not always be a reason, but Jesus has a solution. 

272. He Cares About How It Feels

John 5:6

Have you ever felt bad about thinking you have it hard? You know that there are other people out there who have it worse than you do and so you shouldn’t be having a hard time, right? The only thing is, sometimes your life is overwhelming. Sometimes it’s more than you can bear. Sure, other folks may be worse off, but for you, this struggle is real, and it’s frankly too much. I think a lot of us assume that the Godly thing to do is to simply suck it up and deal with it. We think that what God wants is for us to ignore the pain and simply rise above it like an extreme athlete training for some impossible physical feat. We think Jesus is frustrated. We feel guilty for struggling in life’s problems because we believe the Lord wants us smiling through all of it, all of the time. In John 5, Jesus went to a place covered with sick and disabled people. There was one man there who had been paralyzed for thirty eight years. That’s longer than I’ve been alive. The coolest thing about this story is that Jesus saw the man lying there and learned he had been there for a long time. That’s what John says. Jesus thought the guy had been suffering for a long time. He didn’t say, “Cheer up, dude! Thirty eight years is nothing in the light of eternity!” No, Jesus recognized it was hard. Jesus sees your pain as well and He cares about how it feels to you. He knows you’v been having a rough time and He’s not looking for you to simply rise above it. No, He wants to meet you in it.

271. He Takes Away Your Sin

John 1:29

You have sin in your life that you hate. Now of course, you’re growing and you want to be different; but still, there’s stuff in your heart, mind and actions that you know is wrong. You’re not the person you used to be - you’ve already changed so much. At times it’s hard to believe, but you’ve already come so far. If some of your old friends saw you now, they probably wouldn’t even recognize you; but still, you’re not where you want to be. You don’t want to stay this way. You hate the way sin makes you feel. You hate the gymnastics of temptation and the mental struggle of deciding in the small moments whether or not you’re going to follow Jesus, and then falling again. This morning I was reading the first chapter of the Gospel of John. One of my favorite things that happened was the moment when John the Baptist introduced Jesus. He said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” This is it! This is what your heart is longing for, right? This is the answer to that life-long struggle and that awful feeling in the gut - that frustration about who you are. Jesus came and the reason He came was to take away your sin. You hate your sin. It makes you feel terrible and gives you nothing in return. It screws up your life, but it’s not the end of the story. Jesus came to get rid of it for good. He died to pay and in so doing, He removed your sin. He erased your sin. It’s gone. Your sin isn’t even in the past anymore. Jesus has set you free from sin forever.