To truly give the topic of Jesus' love for us the kind of consideration it truly deserves would take a book. Many have written about the love of Jesus: Pastors and theologians who have a much deeper understanding of Jesus through Scripture. What I write about here, today, is but a very small glimpse of His love for us. Giving His life up for us on the Cross was the greatest act of love anyone could have done for us. It is my prayer that when we get to the topic of Love in the future, after we talk about Hope, you will see Jesus in a new way, or perhaps in way that will open your eyes to the truth of your need for Him.
Today, I want to talk about how Jesus' love for us can help us through our day to day lives. At the end, it is my prayer that you will see Him as the only one who can truly keep you sane as you go through your day, battling whatever comes your way, good or bad.
His love for me allows me to give Him every anxiety I feel and He will take it from me
The Apostles did not only live with Jesus, they experienced Jesus. To experience Jesus is not only to know Him, but to live as He did, following God, the Father. God does not want us worrying about anything at anytime. As Jesus said in Matthew 6:34: "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (New International Version) Jesus walked around this earth not caring what people thought of Him. If something started to bother Him, He would listen to what God had to say before He opened His mouth in response. The apostles did the same thing as they walked around spreading the Gospel to the masses. They first watched how Jesus conducted Himself and then, when it came their time to go out, they followed His example through prayer and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Remember, when they were on their own, just as Jesus was when He walked this earth, they were able to put into practice what they had seen and were now able to experience for themselves the peace that Jesus had at all times.
But how do we experience the peace of Jesus? How do we not worry about yesterday, today, or tomorrow, when situations we would rather not deal with are thrown in front of us consistently? We do what the Apostles did when they ran into trouble: we run to Jesus. Peter 5:7 tells us to "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." (New International Version). Peter could not have written that statement if he didn't believe it or had not experienced it for himself. I'm sure, like all of us, it took Peter some time to give up everything to Jesus. I'm sure there were times that Peter felt he could handle whatever was thrown his way. But the more he gave up his troubles to Jesus, and the more he found peace in any given situation, the more he found that he could live a peaceful life by letting Jesus be in control of it.
Jesus wants us to give Him every situation we go through. Even little things like who to marry, what car to drive, what house to buy, what books you should read, what church to attend, where you should go to school, and that's just for starters. To you it may seem ridiculous or small, or not worth anyone's time, but to Jesus it is everything. He wants to be involved in every aspect of your life from the time you get up in the morning to the time you go to bed. He doesn't want you to worry about anything, nada, nothing at all. He wants you to lean on Him for direction every step of the way because He knows exactly where we should be and what we should be doing.
Remember, He created us and gave us the gifts we have so we could be used by Him to spread the Good News of His salvation to the world, such as I am doing through this blog. As of today, the blog has been read by people in 10 different countries and continues to average about 7 hits a day. All I did was take the gift of writing that God has given me to spread the news of salvation that is found only in Jesus. By giving Him my cares and worries each day, I keep my mind tuned into his Holy Spirit, whereby I am at peace and my mind is uncluttered. If you've read my post "My Life In Christ" you saw that this was not always so.
But why does Jesus want all our worries and troubles? Simple: because He loves us dearly and wants us to enjoy Him and our lives, which we can't do if we stay focused on our problems. It gives us a little taste of Heaven where there will be no troubles at all. Jesus already knows the outcome of all our problems and the outcome will be the best outcome for the situation at hand. Jesus has our backs, but we must give our troubles to Him.
In Righteousness:
Jesus will sustain me and never let me fall
Pursuing God is how we get the power of God into our lives. When we look to Him to figure out the solution to our problems, we are left to focus on Him even more. There is nothing in the world that Jesus can't handle. There is no power greater than the power of God. There is no situation that He can't handle. God never intended for us to handle our problems alone. He fully expects us to look to Him during all our trials in life. He wants to help us with as much intensity as He used in creating the universe and everything in it. You never have to suffer alone when you are a child of God. We suffer alone when we try to fix a bad situation without anyone's help. But when we ask for help, the problem gets solved faster, and in a way we may not have thought of ourselves. God has all the answers. All we have to do is what our next verse tells us to do.
Psalm 55:22 says: "Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall." (New International Version) This may not be easy since we humans think we know everything. But there comes a time in your life when you have to admit that you don't, that you need help from someone who knows what to do. Casting your cares on Jesus does not mean that you are weak; it means that you are strong in admitting you need help, because, as we all know, asking for help is the hardest thing for us to do. And, besides, who wants the problem to persist any longer than it has to? As a child of the living God, you will never fall or fail as long as Jesus has your back, front, every part of you.
Who are the righteousness ones?
Truly righteous people are those who are faithfully walking with Jesus Christ, and are living as He did when He was here on earth. We are called children of God because we have put our faith and trust in Jesus for our salvation and future. It was through Jesus death and resurrection that we who asked Jesus into our lives and to forgive us of our sins are declared righteous. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (New International Version). Righteousness is another way of saying that we as Christians are "right with God."
When I obey God I am showing Him that I love Him by following the example of Jesus
After being declared right with God, He expects us to obey Him in every way. Since we know that He has only our best at heart, we should want to obey Him. It's not always easy since we have free will, but it can be done. Each day we should strive to be more like Jesus which would make our lives much easier to live and survive. As 1 John 2:3-6 says: "When we obey God, we are sure that we know Him. (4)But if we claim to know Him and don’t obey, we are lying and the truth isn’t in our hearts. (5)We truly love God only when we obey Him as we should, and then we know that we belong to Him. (6)If we say we are His; we must follow the example of Christ. (CEV The Promise)"
The example Of Christ is the only true example of love for others. Faith in His power and not ours is the only way to a peaceful, enjoyable life.
See you next time.
Comments