365. He Does All Things Well

Mark 7:37

Right now, it probably seems as though a lot of your life is not going the way you want it to. I know that’s how I feel. If I had a magic wand, there are dozens of things I would change about where I am and what’s going on. My guess is, you’d like to borrow the wand when I get finished with it. The funny thing is, you probably don’t feel that way about some of the things in your past anymore. I’ve found that the longer people walk with Jesus, the more they start to embrace their past as being part of a story God is writing or a tapestry He’s weaving together to bring them here from there. It doesn’t even matter all that much how bad some of those things from the past were. As people grow in the Lord, they look back over disappointments, confusions and even tragedies to find evidence of God at work. This is part of the paradox of having faith in Christ. When we’re in the midst of troubles, we find ourselves struggling for answers and doubting the love of God. When we make it out of those same troubles, we look back and see the Lord’s hand, tenderly making a way for us. My hope for my own life is that over time, the gap between straining and praising will diminish. I know that in the end, when my race is run and I’m with Jesus, I’ll look Him full in the face and say, “You did everything well.” May He give us the faith to say those words today and may He give us the grace to know that when we can’t say them, He still loves us.

364. He Doesn’t Want What To Use What We Want To Be

1 Corinthians 1:28

When people try to help you feel better about your insecurities, what do they usually do? Do they try to pump you up and tell you how awesome, talented, beautiful and smart you are? Do they cite all the amazing things about you that make you better than other people? Of course they do. That’s how friends are supposed to respond when you feel terrible about yourself. Here’s the thing though; those compliments never really convince you, do they? When your friends try to build you up, it’s never enough, is it? Our insecurities are like bottomless pits. They can’t be filled. When we try to feed insecurities, we just wind up hungrier than when we started. We shouldn’t be feeding our insecurities, we should be starving them. The Apostle Paul does a startling thing at the beginning of his first letter to the Corinthians. He essentially says, “Remember when Jesus called you guys? You weren’t brilliant and beautiful. You weren’t powerful and prestigious. You were ordinary, weak, needy folks.” It turns out that the things we all value aren’t very important to Jesus. In fact, all the things we most want to be only seem to get in Jesus’ way. He doesn’t just want the coolest person in the room, hoping they’ll bring some of their coolness to the Kingdom. He wants to utterly change broken people who need redemption. It’s time to starve our insecurities by embracing humility, accepting who we are and realizing Jesus is crazy about us because He just is and no one can change that. Jesus wants you - with all your flaws, scars, weaknesses, temptations and wrong. He loves you for you and that’s enough. 

363. He Wants To Be Invited

Luke 24:29

Why doesn’t Jesus just split the sky open, call a world-wide, live-streaming press conference and prove Himself to be who He always said He was? Wouldn’t that solve everything? Wouldn’t that settle all the debate about which religion is legit? Wouldn’t it answer all our doubts? If Jesus just showed up and proved Himself to be the uncontested King of the Universe, people would have to decide where they stand, right? If He did that, we would all be forced to make room for Jesus, right? Honestly, I don’t know the answer to all those questions, but I know that for whatever reason, Jesus hasn’t revealed Himself in that way. He wants people to trust in Him without having all the proof. He wants us decide to make room for Him in our lives even though we don’t really have to. He wants us to choose to love Him. After Jesus rose from the dead, He disguised Himself. You would think He would be strutting His stuff in front of all the people who had Him killed, but He didn’t. He met with people in small groups and even hid Himself from them. One couple talked with Him on a road and didn’t even know it was Him. When they reached their village, Jesus acted as if He were going further on down the road, but these two people begged Him to go with them and eat dinner with them. That’s what Jesus wants. He wants people who don’t have to hang out with Him to want to be with Him. He wants to be invited into your life. He wants you to bring Him into your day and into your heart because you love Him.

362. He Thinks Very Highly Of You

Matthew 18:10

My guess is that you don’t like you very much. I bet you look around at other people, their lives, their talents, their accomplishments their bodies and wish you had what they have. I bet you want to be like them because you don’t want to be like you anymore. Oh, I wish I could give you even a momentary glimpse of the way Jesus feels about you. I wish you could peek into His outrageous affection for you - even for the tiniest fraction of a moment. If you got even a sideways glance of how much Jesus esteems you, it would shock you to the core. I know you probably believe Jesus loves you; but for most of us, our belief in His love is kind of like our acknowledgment that the sun is big. As in, we know the sun is big. We’ve seen the diagrams, but if you were able to actually go into space and get close to the sun without getting burned up, you would be totally overwhelmed by the size. The thing is, Jesus doesn’t just love you, He loves you beyond your ability to comprehend it. And that’s not all. He honors you. He thinks very highly of you. He sees you as His very own child and He warns people not to mess with you because there are angels charged with your care who report to God face-to-face. Don’t miss that. There are Heavenly military forces - eternal, invincible warriors of light who exist to serve and care for you. Jesus doesn’t just love you. He has deployed His best troops to guard your very life. To Jesus, you are the most precious thing in the entire universe.

361. He's Trying To Help You, Not Hurt You

Mark 6:49

Why is it that when we need the most help, we will sometimes go anywhere but Jesus? Why is He our last resort? When we’re brokenhearted, we’re looking for a flesh and bone friend to talk to - and if we can’t find a good friend, we’ll settle for just about anyone before we go to the Lord about it. When we’re angry, we’re calling everyone we know and even posting on Facebook about our situation rather than stopping for ten minutes to pray about it. When we find ourselves in the middle of a storm we can’t weather and panic sets in, why don’t we go straight to the Lord? My guess is that we have the same instincts the first disciples had about Jesus. One time, they were in a boat on the lake in the middle of a huge storm in the middle of the night. It was dark, they were scared and they didn’t know what to do. All of a sudden, as the lightning flashed, they saw Someone coming toward them, walking on the water. They went from merely being scared to being completely out of their minds with panic and fear. They thought Jesus was a ghost. They probably thought He was coming to scare them to death. He wasn’t a ghost, though. He was their friend. He wasn’t coming to scare or hurt or kill them. He was coming to help them. If they had stopped long enough to pray, they would have asked for this very thing - for Jesus to come save them. We go to Jesus last because we’re still worried He’s after us, but in everything He does, He’s saving us, helping us and loving us. 

360. He Knows You're Fighting

1 John 4:4

Are you discouraged or filled with doubts? Do you have a sneaking suspicion that God is angry with you and withdrawing Himself from being close to you? Do you ever feel like you’re worthless or that your life just doesn’t mean very much? Okay, time out. You are under attack, right now. In the Scriptures, God’s enemy has a few different names and titles; but to me, the one that strikes home the most is “the adversary.” When it comes down to it, he’s just against you. He’s your opponent. He wants to take you down and take you out. He does this by confusing you, discouraging you and lying to you about who you are and how God feels about you. He’s so good at his job that most people don’t recognize his attacks at all. When we get discouraged or confused, we blame ourselves and then feel guilty for experiencing perfectly understandable emotions. When we hate ourselves and feel despondent about the pointlessness of our own existence compared to others, we call it humility and we think we’re doing the right thing. If there’s one thing that could completely change the temperature of the daily spiritual battles of normal folks, it would be this: the recognition that a battle is being waged in the first place. The Scriptures are clear when it comes to spiritual warfare. All we have to do is show up. Paul says get dressed and stand. Peter says to simply resist. John says the One in us is greater than the one attacking us. Our biggest problem is simply forgetting that we have an adversary. We blame ourselves, but Jesus knows we are under attack and He wants to fight for us.

359. He's Recruiting Pilgrim Hearts

Hebrews 11:14

Do you ever get frustrated with this world and the way it’s going? Do you ever look around at the people getting more stuff, bigger houses, nicer clothes, better vacations and then realize that you don’t really care about any of that stuff? Have you tried out enough of this busted old world to realize that it doesn’t actually have very much to offer your heart? I mean, let’s be honest - this world has a lot to offer your physical senses. There are comforts, pleasures and delicacies by the truckload, but is there really all that much that can satisfy the depths of who you are? Why is it that the people who have the most stuff, the greatest accomplishments and the brightest spotlights are usually incredibly lonely, depressed and even addicted? This world was never supposed to be our home and the sensory pleasures of this world were never supposed to be able to satisfy our hearts. You were made for a better world. You’re not supposed to be comfortable here. You’re supposed to feel like a foreigner. As believers in Jesus, we are supposed to be pilgrims on a journey to a different and better world - our true home. On Jesus’ last night before the cross, He told His friends that He was going away to prepare a place for them and that He would come back and bring them to that place He was preparing. That’s why you’re getting tired of this place. That’s why you’re longing for something more. God’s people have always had a healthy dissatisfaction with temporary pleasure. We are only passing through this world. If you find yourself homesick for a place you’ve never been, you know you’re one of His kids. 

358. He'll Never Be Finished

Luke 24:5

One of the hardest things about being human is the question of your own worth. How can you ever really know whether your life means enough? On top of the difficulty of that question is the fact that death cuts the answer off. When you die, everything’s just over. Death is so final. When you lose someone really close to you, it takes a long time for the fact to sink all the way down into your heart that they really are gone and their life on earth is over. You’ll hear a song they really loved or remember an old inside joke you shared with that person and think of them. You might even start to call them or send them a text message only to remember with a painful stab that you can’t make that call because they won’t pick up. It’s over. They’re gone. Their work is finished, their laugh is silenced and all their stories are told. Surely this is the way the disciples felt on the Saturday after Jesus died on the cross. Waking up Sunday morning would have had that same, dull, numb sadness of grief until the greatest news broke over their weary hearts like a tidal wave of impossible joy. He’s back! He’s not dead! Incredibly, amazingly, Jesus is alive. His story didn’t end and His work isn’t finished. In fact, one of the beautiful things about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is that He gives us that same indestructible life that beats in His ribs. We are His kids, and we will never really die. Your worth is sealed by the fact of His spilled blood for you and His everlasting life is pulsing in your veins. He’ll never be finished with you.

357. He Died To Bring You Behind The Curtain

Luke 23:45

I bet you sometimes feel really far away from God. Not only that, but I bet you think the distance is God’s way of showing you how unhappy He is with your behavior. In other words, you assume God punishes your sin by withholding Himself from you. The reason I know you sometimes feel this way is that I do too. We all do. Everyone goes through seasons of feeling really far away from God and we all naturally think this is a direct result of our wrong. The thing is, despite the way you feel, if you know Jesus, your sin will never separate you from the love of God ever again. The truth is, we used to be separated from God because of our wrong. We were all born that way, excluded from His fellowship like the Israelites of old who worshiped God knowing that they could never really approach Him. There was a special room in the temple where God’s presence was said to dwell and a giant curtain hung in front of the entrance to that room, keeping them separate from God. Only one person could go behind the curtain and only one day out of the whole year. Even then, this High Priest had to have the blood of a spotless substitute on his head, hands and feet. Jesus came and lived a perfect life and then laid that life down to be your Spotless Substitute. His perfect blood was shed to take you behind the curtain. In fact, before He died, that curtain ripped from top to bottom. You are no longer separated from God’s presence. No matter what you have done, you can be with God right now.

356. His Love For You Is Outrageous

Psalm 139:17

I want you to answer a question in your own head without thinking about it. Just give your gut reaction as soon as you read the question. Ready? Here we go: who is the person you love most in the world? Is it your best friend? Is it your spouse or your child or your Great Aunt Liz or your German Shepherd, Roscoe? Who in your life just sets your heart on fire? Who is that person you are most devoted to and most excited to be with? Who is that person you’re crazy about, in spite of all their faults? Who is that person you would defend at all costs? Okay. Now picture them. Can you see their face in your mind’s eye and hear their voice and their laugh? Focus on that face you love and think about the way you feel about them. I want you to try something. Take your affection and commitment for that person and multiply it a million times. Multiply it a billion times. Imagine that huge love you have radiates with the eternal, explosive power of a trillion burning suns, no matter what that person does or who they become, forever and ever. Now, I want you to imagine what it would feel like to be loved like that. What if Jesus loves you with that kind of intensity and constancy? He says you’re the apple of His eye. He says you enthrall Him. He says you are His chosen, His beloved, His friend. He says He’ll never forget you and never forsake you. What if you believed those words with all of your heart? What if His thoughts about you were the most precious thing in the world to you?

355. He Gives Gifts, Not Wages

Matthew 20:15

Are you at peace and filled with a deep seated joy today, or full of anxiety? When you look at your self and your own heart, are you content, or shuddering and nervous? Do you know, right now, with absolute certainty where you stand with Jesus, or are you tense and worried, unsure about the way He sees you? People come to Jesus in one of two ways and the way you see your relationship with Him is completely dependent upon how you come to Him. People either come to Jesus as an employee ready to collect what they’ve earned or they come to Him as a charity case, ready to receive what He freely gives. Only one approach actually works, and yet most of us try them both from time to time. In Matthew 20, Jesus told a story about a landowner who hired people to work in His vineyard. Offering a certain amount of money, He hired some folks at dawn, some at mid morning, some at lunch, some in early afternoon and He even hired a few right before quitting time. At the end of the work day, He paid everyone the same. The people hired at dawn complained because they thought they should get more. The landowner said, “You got exactly what I offered you. You got exactly what you agreed to. So what if I’m generous to these others? This is my money.” When you approach Jesus like an employee, you’ll always wonder if you worked hard enough and you’ll be discontent with what He gives, but when you realize He just loves you for no reason, you accept everything as charity, which frees you up to just be satisfied, joyful and loved.

354. He Got Us Out Of Trouble

1 Thessalonians 1:10

Do you ever have those moments where you come face-to-face with the awful truth of who you can be and realize that if Jesus didn’t love you, you’d be hosed? And look, I’m not talking about someone making you feel guilty about something from your past. I mean, you have some funky attitude or reaction and you look at it all on your own and admit to yourself without any doubt, “I’m kind of a huge jerk.” The weird thing is, no matter what we try to do, we can’t clean up the spill. We can't rehabilitate the jerkiness away. There’s a darkness deeper than we like to face inside everyone of us. The weird thing is, even though we know this is the truth about ourselves, we forget it an awful lot. It’s very easy to think that the world is divided up into evil people and good people and we’re basically on the good side. Do you ever land with both feet in those moments where you know you’re not on the good side? The truth is, there’s a storm coming. It’s unavoidable and unstoppable and it’s going to change absolutely everything. The uncompromising justice of the Holy God of Heaven is going to sweep down over this world and His patience with wrong will be replaced with devastating power unleashed on every corner of darkness until everything is made right. It’s not just something crazy people write on cardboard signs - the end is actually coming one day. The wrath of God will spill out and we deserve to be leveled in that awful wake, but we won’t be. We have been spared. Jesus saved us because of His love for us.

353. He's Okay With Some Honest Stubbornness

Luke 11:8

I think when it comes to prayer, most of us are a bunch of chickens. My whole life, I’ve heard people pray in such a way where they dance around the thing they really want to say instead of just saying it. I’ve heard people pull punches with God and even apologize for bringing up what they’re asking of Him. Sometimes, when people do get around to asking for the thing they really want God to do for them, they’ll immediately frame it by saying, “but only if it’s Your will, Lord.” In other words, these folks will effectively withdraw their request as soon as they make it by deploying the ‘if-it’s-Your-will’ clause. I have to be real here and admit that I’ve prayed like this as well. We all have. We learned it from other believers. We want to treat God with the respect He deserves and we don’t want to sound like a bunch of demanding, ungrateful punks rattling the gates of Heaven, so we back off from asking for the thing we really want. The thing is, Jesus didn’t teach us to pray this way. Jesus told His guys to pray with honesty, intensity, determination and even a disregard for social propriety. He told a story about a guy going over to his neighbor’s house at midnight and begging for bread to feed some unexpected guests. It’s a rude request and the neighbor flatly refuses, but Jesus says the bread was given. Wow. That’s prayer. It’s stubborn and real, even if it is disrespectful. Real prayer says, “I’m not leaving your porch until you answer me.” Does that make you uncomfortable? Jesus said it’s the way to get what you want.

352. He Sees You Through The Eyes Of A Parent

Matthew 9:2;22

Are you ever suspicious about the way God sees you? Let’s face it, God knows everything about you, so He probably sees you in the worst possible light, right? It’s an easy thing to assume and feel. Most people see God as the Chief of the sin police; and since He’s omniscient, that would probably make Him the head of the CIA version of the sin police. The only problem is that when we look at our relationship through this lens of the troublemaker and the Enforcer, we sell everybody short. I’m not saying you don’t have sin in your life, because you do, but seeing God merely as a sin investigator and seeing yourself merely as a perpetrator makes God less than He is and makes you less than you are to Him, and I can prove it to you. I want you to think of someone in your town or school or church who gets into trouble a lot. Think of someone everyone talks about behind their back. The funny thing is, people are bold and loud about this person’s wrongs with anyone and everyone unless that person’s mother or father is around. If Mom or Dad is in earshot, they show more respect. The thing we always forget is that we are God’s kids. That’s the ultimate lens He sees us through. In Matthew 9, Jesus called a man, “son” and a woman “daughter.” That’s how Jesus sees you. A wise parent sees the sin in their child, but real love goes deeper than disappointment, embarrassment, anger or anything else. There’s a connection and a sympathy that outweighs the wrong. When Jesus sees you, He sees the child He loves.

351. He Belongs To The Needy

Matthew 21:14-15

Do you ever find it funny that we spend so much time and energy trying to attain a self-sufficient life when we are so obviously frail and dependent? The really interesting thing is how much our spiritual culture emphasizes and aims for strength, competence and security when our faith doesn’t really promise those things. Indeed, our faith is supposed to be about our need for Jesus. He is the strong One. He is our security. And yet, we are uncomfortable in our own skin. We are ashamed of not being enough and we don’t like to see that need in others. Dependence makes us feel embarrassed on behalf of desperate people, despite the fact that at the core, we are all smoking wreckage in need of critical repair. One week before Jesus went to the cross, He was entering Jerusalem on the back of a young donkey, fulfilling an ancient prophecy as crowds sang Messianic Psalms to praise Him. At the same time, other folks were telling Jesus to silence these crowds because their praise was inappropriate. Matthew tells us the folks worshiping Jesus were the blind, the lame and the children. The folks opposing their worship were the rich, the powerful and the influential. Jesus loved their songs. He stood with and defended the cause of the helpless, the powerless and the voiceless. The thing is, it’s not that Jesus didn’t love those religious leaders opposing Him, they just didn’t think they needed Him. Jesus isn’t for everyone. Don’t get me wrong - everyone needs Jesus, but not everyone knows it. If you know you are totally needy - dependent, powerless and helpless without Him, Jesus belongs to you. He died for you and He lives for you.

350. He Let Himself Be Excluded

Hebrews 13:12

Have you ever noticed how some of the most significant and profound moments of spiritual change happen in the smallest, quietest and most humble situations? This is kind of a weird thing, because lots of Christian-looking events and gatherings are big and flashy - church services and worship concerts in fancy arenas with thousands of people, laser light shows and chart-topping bands. In my experience, however, people’s lives change most in one-on-one conversations in coffee shops while no one else is looking. I’ve seen people really give their heart to the Lord in moments of failure, humiliation, tragedy and disease. Despite the glitzy image and talk of many Christian groups, the Kingdom of God is advancing in the midst of pain and friendship, sorrow and service. There is a place at the end of the book of Hebrews that talks about how the priests in the old sacrificial system would take the blood of the sacrificed animal into the temple, but the bodies would be burned outside the camp, in disgrace. This writer goes on to say that Jesus suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy by His blood. The way of Jesus is that of exclusion and disgrace. It’s the way of service to the weak and troubled. Jesus identifies with the poor, hated, hurting and lonely. The writer then goes on to say that for this reason we should go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore because this world is not our home. Let’s build the Kingdom alongside Jesus. Let’s embrace exclusion, humility, and want. Let’s give ourselves to serve the broken and ignored. This world is fancy and fine, but it is not our home.

349. He Loves Doing Things For You

John 14:2

One of the easiest traps to fall into is assuming that Jesus does things for you because He has to - as if He is fulfilling the requirements of a contract against His own will. The Bible says there are tons of things Jesus is doing for us all the time - praying for us, strengthening us, guiding us, holding us, working through us and even making all things work together for our best. There’s even one place where Jesus says that He’s preparing a place for us in Heaven. If I’m honest, I sometimes picture Jesus carrying out that list with a frown on His face - the way I do chores when I’d rather be curled up on the couch watching a movie. I assume He’s reluctant to work in my life but does it anyway, because if He doesn’t, who will? The thing is, the more I think  about it, the more I realize my assumption about Jesus’ attitude sells Him way short. This week, my wife and I are planning a big party for our kids themed around the Harry Potter books. We’re dressing up as our favorite characters and making food and drinks from the stories. Christy and I are having so much fun putting this party together for our kids because we love them and we love their joy. It doesn’t even feel like work. It’s just what love does. Do I really think Jesus is a less enthusiastic parent than I am? Do I honestly think He’s less joyful, less loving or less fun? No way! Jesus loves working in your life. He loves making a place for you and praying for you because you are His child and He absolutely loves your joy.

348. He Doesn't Want You To Hold Back On Him

Isaiah 62:7

When you’re trying to figure out what it means to walk with the Lord, it’s easy to think that you’re not really allowed to feel the things you feel. There are Bible verses about not complaining, not worrying and rejoicing always; but sometimes you feel sad. Sometimes you feel anxious and disappointed in what you’re facing. So, what does that mean? To be honest, I don’t know. I know those verses I mentioned are the goal. That’s where we want to end up when we’re in the middle of life’s troubles. I know that God has gotten me to the place of having a carefree, full heart that just trusts in Him, even when it’s hurting. I also know that I almost never start out there. When I find myself in a storm, I usually start out pretty confused, disoriented and upset. The thing I’m coming to believe more and more about the Lord is that He’s okay with that. He has a goal for my heart and He knows what it’s going to take to get me to grow into that goal, but I also know He wants me to be myself with Him, even when I haven’t reached the goal. I’m learning that in the place of prayer, I can be me, unfiltered. Isaiah 62 says when you’re really upset about something, you should pray and give yourself no rest. He goes on to say you should give the Lord no rest as well. If you need to bang on His door with your questions, hurt, complaint or frustration, do it. Do it until you get an answer. It’s what Job did. It’s what David did. It’s how Jesus taught us to pray.

347. He Wants To Change The Way We See, Think And Feel

Luke 14:5

So many of us have wasted a lot of time trying to please God by following all the rules. The thing is, following rules doesn’t have anything to do with pleasing God. Not only that, but trying to earn God’s approval by walking a perfectly straight line winds up making us worse. When we try to go by the rules, we end up blind, dense and insensitive. When we’re focussed on simply doing things the right way, we lose all traces of simple, basic, common sense. One time Jesus was at a dinner party with some Pharisees - the religious leadership of God’s people. In the midst of the guests was a man suffering from severe and painful swelling in his joints. Jesus had already gotten in trouble for healing people on the Sabbath day. They considered healing to be work and as a result, a violation of the command of that day to rest. Jesus looked at this hurting man and then asked the leaders if it was okay to heal even on the day of rest. They stayed silent. He then said that if they had a child or even an animal that was hurting on the Sabbath, they’d intervene and help out. What’s really interesting is the fact that this dinner party only takes up 14 verses in the whole book of Luke, but two of those verses were used to tell us the Pharisees were speechless. When we focus on the rules and doing everything the right way, we can’t see, think or feel properly. Trying to live right changes us, but it changes us for the worse. Jesus wants to set us free to simply let Him change us.

346. He's Winking At The Camera

John 18:6

Do you ever feel like your life has gotten completely out of hand? Do you ever look around in your own experience and see nothing but disasters? Sometimes it’s as if you are caught up in your own nightmare scenario and you don’t know the way out. Maybe something happened and you’ve lost all your friends. Maybe no one really understands you and you feel completely alone. Maybe that thing you did in secret has come to light and you’re afraid the ceiling is going to cave in on all your relationships. Maybe you’re out of money. Maybe you’re sick. Maybe you’re about to lose the person you love the most. In those moments, it’s hard to cling to your faith in Jesus, right? I mean, if He’s in control, then why in the world is this happening right now? If He’s calling the shots, why did we wind up in this mess? On the night Jesus was arrested, it seemed as though the world was falling apart. Jesus was betrayed by His friend, falsely accused and sentenced to die even though He was innocent. It looked like the world was having its way with Jesus. Everything was out of control - or was it? There were little moments when Jesus showed He was still running the show. It was like an action hero in a movie winking at the camera when all seemed lost - letting you know he has a plan. When soldiers tried to arrest Jesus, He merely spoke, and hundreds of armed men fell to the ground. It was a little wink. He’s still in control. He still has a plan. In the midst of your confusion, Jesus knows what He’s doing. He’s working for your best.