218. He Set You Free To Be Freely You

Galatians 5:1

I love when Paul says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Dang! I love that sentence so much, it hurts. I love it because it feels so cheeky and sarcastic. It’s beautifully redundant and I imagine Paul smiling as he wrote it. I mean, he seems like he’s pretty upset for most of the book of Galatians, so maybe he scratched that sentence out in a fury of enraged quill and ink; but even if he was upset when writing this line, I think he must have been smirking. Whenever I read that verse, I almost expect to see it followed by the word, “Duh!” Here’s the thing: So many Christians are trying to simply ‘be good Christians.’ They’re trying to wear the most modest clothes. They’re trying to listen to the right music. They’re trying to raise their kids with the best values. They want to vote for the “right” candidate. I bet that if you time-traveled the Apostle Paul here and dropped him off in the front lobby of a Christian conference for 20 minutes, he’d stand up and shout, “Hey! What’s wrong with you people?! Why are you so obsessed with Christian values?! You’ve made up these rules! You’re trying to make everyone into the same person! No! Jesus set you free so that you could be fully free and completely and uniquely you!” If your Christianity is based on you keeping rules, you have missed Jesus completely and what you have isn’t real Christianity. Jesus doesn’t want you to conform to the rules and values. Jesus wants you to be free to turn into something that has never happened before in the history of the universe: You.

217. He Loves You When You Hate Yourself

Luke 24:34

Do you know what it feels like to hate yourself? Stop reading for a second and just think about that question again. Do you know how it feels to cross a line you swore you wouldn’t cross, then look your self in the mirror and just wish it hadn’t happened? Have you ever thought, “I would give anything to go back and erase that thing I just did?” Do you know how that feels? Of course you do. If you don’t know how that feels, you’re either lying or just really young. If you’re the latter, just wait, ‘cause your day is coming. For the rest of us who know what it’s like to hate yourself, I have some news for you: Jesus loves you when you don’t. Again, slow down for a second and let that last statement sink in. You see, on the night Jesus was betrayed by Judas, He was also betrayed by Peter. He denied three times that He even knew Jesus and then went out and wept bitterly. We’ve all been there. Peter couldn’t believe what had happened. He couldn’t believe who he had become. Peter was through with himself, but Jesus wasn’t through with him. When Jesus rose from the dead, before He appeared to all His disciples on the beach for that memorable breakfast, and even before He appeared to His disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem, it says that He appeared to Peter, alone. There may be have been tears of sorrow from Peter, but there were words of love from Jesus. He’s the sin-forgiver. He is love made manifest. Go to Him. Even when you hate yourself, go and find out how much He loves you.

216. He Gave Everything

Luke 22:19

Do you ever feel like God is holding back on you? Have you ever looked at your own life, then looked around at the other lives around you and thought, “Why is He so hard on me? Why don’t I have what they have? Why do things always work out for them? Why doesn’t God bless me like He blesses them?” I know I’m not the only person who’s ever felt that way, and to be honest, it’s easy to do! Comparison is the most natural thing in the world and yet it’s so dangerous. When you see someone with enough money, all you can think about is how much you need and how desperate your situation feels. When you see someone in a happy dating relationship or marriage when you’re not, all you can think about is your own loneliness. It’s the most natural thing in the world to feel like God is selling you short while He blesses everyone else, but the way it feels isn’t the whole story. It occurs to me that when I’m upset and stuck in comparison, I picture Jesus as a banker with huge piles of blessing like dollar bills, giving some people tons and giving me only a little bit, but that’s the wrong picture. On the night He was betrayed, Jesus took bread and broke it, saying, “This is me. I am going to be broken and poured out for you.” He gave all of Himself for me. He didn’t hold anything back. He has done everything possible to secure my eternal blessing, peace and joy. He laid down His life unto death for me and you because He loves us. He gave it all and the only thing left was love.

215. He's The Only Way

John 14:6

I hate backsliding. I hate the way it feels. I hate looking at myself in the mirror after messing up yet again. Thing is, I don’t hate backsliding for the same reasons I used to. I used to be afraid of backsliding because I thought that it meant I was disqualified from the love of God. I used to think that if I sinned enough or in bad enough ways that it meant God was through with me and I lost my place in His heart. I thought that I could somehow lose my salvation or out-sin His grace and forgiveness. I know now that’s not the way it is. Since I have trusted in Jesus’ offer of free grace, I know that I have forever been declared forgiven and righteous because of His work and not mine. I know I can never lose my place in His heart, but here’s the thing: I still hate backsliding. I just hate it for a different reason. You see, Jesus is clear about the fact that He’s the only way, and now I’m starting to see that Jesus being the only way goes deeper than me just getting saved. When Jesus says no one comes to the Father except through Him, I think He means more than simply being forgiven. I think He’s saying that the whole universe works according to His ways. He’s the only way to God, which means that any way but His takes me the other direction. When I backslide, I’m not losing my salvation, but I’m going against the pull of the universe. Any way but His leaves me desperate, lonely and dissatisfied, but walking with Him fills me with life and takes me to God.

214. He's In Charge

Psalm 2:6

As I type this little meditation, it is election season in the United States. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent. Tempers are flaring between families and friends. The tensions that divide this country are heating up to a boiling point and in the minds of some, the very fate of the world hangs in the balance. Well, here’s the deal: It does not. You see, the occupant of the Oval Office did not fling galaxies into orbit with a word. The next Federal Administration can’t still a raging storm by saying, “Hush.” The President of the United States of America is not God, and God has already cast His vote. In Psalm 2:6, the Father says, “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.” Isaiah 40 says that if you were to gather up all the might and money of every nation in this world together into one huge, cooperative conglomeration of global power, it would be less than one, little drop of water in a bucket. Jesus is the King of the Universe. One day He will step onto the stage of this world and take His rightful place. Jesus is in charge. So, am I telling you not to take part in the process in the meantime? No. Go ahead and read, learn and vote your conscience. You have that right. But remember who’s really in charge and let that temper your trust in this system. Let your faith in and loyalty to your King stamp out all your fears about this and every other election. Don’t be afraid. “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” - 1 Timothy 1:7

213. He Wants To Solve Your Problems

Mark 16:4

Sometimes Christians say things that sound super holy, but don’t have the ring of authenticity and wind up not even being all that Biblical. For instance, I always hear Christians say things like this: “Don’t go to Jesus just because you need something and He can solve your problems. Go to Jesus because He’s worthy of worship. You should want to love Him only for His glory, not to sort out your messes.” I have to be honest here and admit that this kind of statement trips my ‘whatever’ meter. Nobody worships Jesus purely for the magnification of His praise. We need Him! We need forgiveness and grace and peace and help! Jesus Himself said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” The Apostle Peter said, “Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” When Jesus rose from the dead, it wasn’t all about the exaltation of His glorious name. It was also about you and your little, everyday problems. Mark 16 says that women were on their way to the tomb early on Sunday morning to visit the body of Jesus and remembered on the way that there was a massive stone covering the entrance to the tomb. Bad planning on their part. How in the world were those few women supposed to move that thing? Check this: When they arrived, the stone had been moved. Who moved it? The resurrected Christ. Jesus solved the problem they didn’t even know they would have. Jesus is worthy of all your praise, but He’s also the Good Shepherd who watches over you and cares for you. Taking your problems to Jesus is Biblical, holy and good.

212. He Wants To Hang Right Now

Matthew 11:28

When you’re not who you want to be, you don’t feel like you should be around God, right? If you’re less or worse than the person you think you ought to be by now, you feel like you can’t really go to the Lord. You can’t pray, you can’t crack open your Bible and you don’t really want to be around any Christians. Why is that? We all feel this impulse, by the way. If you know what I’m talking about, (and you do) then you’re not alone. I was talking to a friend recently who said that he had gotten out of the habit of spending time with Jesus every day simply because he had sinned and was too ashamed of himself to face the Lord. Now, on the one hand, that’s the most natural thing in the world to feel; but on the other hand, it makes no sense. That’s a feeling that’s got to go. You see, if you think you have to have it all together to hang out with Jesus, you’d better get prepared for some massive disappointment. As long as you are breathing air on the green side of the grass, you aren’t going to have it all together. You are going to struggle, sin and fail. You won’t be strong enough to make it and you won’t reach your potential. That doesn’t mean you’re not changing and it doesn’t mean you won’t grow, but it does mean you need to learn to accept something true about yourself: You won’t go up to Jesus. He came down for you. He didn’t say, “Come to me, all you who are awesome.” He said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened.”

211. He Speaks Up For You

Romans 8:34

Sometimes Christians wonder if Jesus is disappointed with them because they did a certain sin, or because they did a certain sin again for the 400 thousandth time. Most of the time they feel this way because someone at church told them that this is exactly what it’s like. Folks start to get this image of Jesus as a kind of hard-line football coach who’s impossible to please. We picture Him ringing His hands on the sidelines, yelling at the players on the field and shaking his head in disgust at our performance. Sometimes you even hear Christians saying that they’re nervous about heaven and facing the Lord when they die because they suck so much at living this thing well. It’s like they think going home to perfect, painless paradise will be like going into the locker room when you’re losing by four touchdowns at half time. They think Jesus is gonna throw the clipboard, dump out the water cooler and yell and scream out his absolute disgust. Well here’s the deal: If anyone has ever made you feel that way about Jesus, they were dead wrong. The Bible says that Jesus intercedes for us. That is a word that had to do with lawyers in a court room fighting for their client. Jesus isn’t a frustrated coach who’s mad at you, He’s a brilliant lawyer giving it all He’s got to defend you! Jesus left heaven when He didn’t have to so that He could give His perfect life for you and save you and be with you forever and ever. Jesus wanted you because He loves you and He speaks up for you, vouches for you and fights for your freedom. He’s on your side.

210. He Knows You're Gonna Be Down Sometimes

Matthew 12:20

Have you ever just felt emotionally down for no apparent reason? Yo know what I mean, right? Sometimes you just feel low. Sometimes you don’t want to hang with anyone or laugh about anything. Sometimes you can feel the pull of depressed thoughts easing their way around you and the question is, what are you supposed to do then? Well, a lot of times the people in your life won’t have any patience for this kind of thing. Sometimes people in church will just tell you to pull it together because “your life isn’t all that bad and you don’t have any reason to be depressed.” Sometimes they’ll even list all the reasons you should be happy, but here’s the thing: These depressed thoughts aren’t reasonable, so reason alone won’t get you out of the woods. Sometimes church folks will tell you that Jesus just wants you to rejoice, no matter what and that He’s waiting on you to cheer up. It’s easy to feel as though Jesus is frustrated or upset about your depression, but He’s not. Jesus knows that sometimes you go up and down. Jesus knows this is only going to be a season. Jesus knows who you’re going to be when you make it through this. He isn’t frustrated with you and He won’t be hard on you. An Old Testament prophecy said, “When the Messiah comes, He won’t snap a weak twig just because it’s fragile. He won’t snuff out candles that are barely hanging onto their light.” In other words, Jesus won’t walk all over your feelings. Jesus wants you to have joy and peace in your heart, but He understands when you don’t and He knows how to be tender.