“But
immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.’” Matthew
14:27 NKJV.
When it seems that you’ve been asked to carry a heavier
burden longer than many others, that is only Jesus building you a bigger
blessing through a specific challenge in life.
When the path you’ve planned for your life takes a turn,
Jesus just wants to show you an adventurous, more scenic route. Relax and look for Him every day. Watch for the curves and lean into Him,
letting Him thrill your soul with His surprises along the way. You will never regret following Him to the place He will lead you, nor the route He chooses for you.
When we are young, life is easy to plan, but grows harder
to live it out day by day. Life is
filled with disappointments and broken expectations, ranging from the small and
petty to sudden crises and terrible tragedies.
When the life we planned is not the life we are living,
we may have the assurance that God is aware of our dismay, our dread, and even
on occasion our outright fear.
And, yet down through the ages of time, God’s
instructions for His people remains constant and unchanged:
Do not be afraid, neither let your heart be
troubled---you believe in God, believe also in Jesus and let His Holy Spirit
guide you through every temporary dark place as you journey through life with
Jesus by your side all the way!
God is faithful and He is trustworthy. He works in multiple and magnificent ways to
reassure His people that He is committed to our care and provision for every
need that will ever arise in life.
Sin caused the fall of God’s perfectly created world and
how and why and precisely when, no human can explain. But life goes on, and people are born and
people die every single day since the beginning of time, which began when God
determined that it would.
God is unexplainable, but not unapproachable. However, He is only approachable in the way
He determines. No one comes to the
Father (God) except through Jesus Christ.
God is the one critical element in everything
imaginable. He must be since He has no
beginning and no end. He is the
Beginning and the Ending – “Alpha and Omega.”
His existence is not affected by whether you believe in
His existence or not; He is not threatened by unbelief or disbelief. He is.
He was. He is to come.
And, yet, He has gone to great lengths to reveal Himself to
humans. That is His history, which has
been meticulously recorded in the Book named The Holy Bible. Generations of people have come and gone from
the face of the Earth, many of whom have believed in Him, and some have even known
Him personally. Others have chosen not to believe in Him, refusing to
know Him, rejecting even the idea of His existence.
Still others choose even today to deny Him, actively
working to discourage others from coming to know Him, resorting to the twisting
and denying of His Truth, and persecuting those who do know Him.
None of this changes the Truth of Who God is, nor does it
interrupt His ongoing purpose-filled plan for revealing Himself to His created
beings. Those who believe in Him, and
believe His Word choose to know Him and receive His active presence in our
lives.
Believers embrace His Word and draw strength from Him
through His written Word and His Holy Spirit who resides inside our bodies,
which His Word calls His (God’s) “temple.”
Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No
one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6.)
Matthew 14:27, Amplified Bible: “But instantly He* (Jesus) spoke to them*,
saying*, ‘Take courage! I AM! Stop being afraid!’ [Exodus 3:14.]”
*Jesus: God, the
Great I AM: Authority of the Supreme
Sovereign God.
*Them: His
Disciples, the followers, believers in God through faith in Jesus Christ.
*Saying: Jesus’
command: TRUST ME: I have the power, the Authority, the
Commitment to care for you, because I care about you. (See 1 Peter 5:6-7,Amp.)
Are you a disciple of Jesus? A follower of His way, a believer in His
authority to do all that He has promised?
If so, having not seen Him in the flesh, yet you love Him
now. You have already tasted His
goodness, His kindness, His mercy toward you in the grace through which He
saved you and set you on the pathway of His kingdom. You have entered into personal relationship
with Him through your faith in Him and the truth of His Word.
If you do not have this personal relationship yet, what
more from Jesus are you waiting for before you commit your life to Him in utter
trust?
He died for you. He
was resurrected from the dead to die no more in order that you might experience
the opportunity to choose to live because he lives.
He enters into a binding covenant with all who will come
to Him. He revealed Himself to the
world. He continues to reveal Himself to
people, to countries, to nations – to the waiting, watching world.
He speaks today, as He spoke yesterday, as He will speak
tomorrow, because He was sent from God to say all that God declares and reveals
– see John 17:1-26.
Those who are listening will hear Him. Those who are watching will see Him.
Those who are waiting for Him will abide forever with Him
in eternal glory.
Where are you? For
what are you waiting? For whom are you
looking? To whom are you listening?
In the face of the difficult challenges of life, we must
come to the place where we have learned to move beyond believing in Him to
knowing Him by trusting Him.
To know Him is to love Him. To love Him is to obey Him. To obey Him is to TRUST Him.
We practice trusting Him every time we come face-to-face
with the difficulties of this life:
“I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have
peace. In the world you will have
tribulation. But take heart; I have
overcome the world.” John 16:33.
Jesus talked constantly with His disciples while He lived
briefly and temporarily upon the earth.
He left them with many things unsaid because He knew they could not bear
to take them all in at that time, and so He promised them that another would
come to remain forever with His people who reside on the earth who would tell
them everything they needed to know.
Jesus said many things, and all with purpose. Everything He said to them was for a
reason: to help them know and believe in
God and also in Him, that they might continue to hold to their faith without
falling away when He had been resurrected from the dead and returned to heaven.
Jesus was sent to say, the Holy Spirit was sent to
stay!
“But when He,
the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all
the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For
He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the
Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will
announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in
the future].” John 16:13 Amplified
Bible.
For eternal life to begin, there must be an earthly
ending; there will be one day (the timing of which is known only to God, the
Father), when a door of departure will be opened. He will usher each believer into His
beautiful home in heaven where He has prepared a place for each one to come at
the appointed time to the place He has prepared for His people. (See John
14:1.)
My prayer is that all will come to Him before it is too
late to be gathered safely and securely into the covenant of His making to
provide Eternal Life with Him.
“And this is eternal life: It means to know – to perceive,
recognize, become acquainted with, and understand You, the only true and real God,
and likewise to know Him, Jesus as the Christ – the Annointed One, the Messiah, - Whom You have
sent.” John 17:3, Amplified Bible.
When it looks like something in your life isn’t turning
out well, that’s just Jesus showing you what a greater thing He is doing for
you! He will always see to it that all
things work out for your good, your very best, if you love Him. He loved you first. See Romans 8:28.
Open God’s Word, The Holy Bible, and begin to prayerfully
read His open letter to one and all. The Holy Spirit will be required to open our
understanding to hear and to know… He will draw us to the Father.
“But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying,
‘Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be
afraid.’” Matthew 14:27 NKJV.
