City Life Starter

What Do You Think About Jesus?

I usually spend devotional time with God in the mornings. One day this past week, I skipped out on that time with God in the morning. It wasn’t because I didn’t have enough time or was intentionally blowing Him off. For whatever reason, I just got caught up doing something else and lost track of the time. It wasn’t until evening that I realized I hadn’t spent time with Him, so I went up to my room to do so.

Right when I sat down to begin praying, I heard God say: “I’ve been craving this time with you all day.” At first, I was taken aback. I began searching for the words to respond to Him, but all that came to my mind was “God, what are You talking about? How can You possibly feel this way?!” I always knew that spending time with God was beneficial to me, but it never occurred to me that God actually got something out of it too.

We often wonder how God, Creator of the universe, would be mindful of us, but the truth remains: God furiously and steadfastly loves us! Psalm 37:23 says “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.”

After overcoming this initial state of shock from God’s statement, I just sat back and began to smile and praise the Name of Jesus. I am so passionate about Jesus. I’m not passionate about Him because I’m crazy or because I want religious folk to admire my devotion. No. God knows who I really was before He found me.

When I first began to seek God, I did so as a student would seek knowledge from a teacher or like a doctor trying to find an elusive cure. I wanted to be praised as the person who searched for God and found Him. I thought I could figure out God, box Him up, and then check Him off my list of things to do to classify me as a “good person.” Falsely humble, arrogant, cocky— that was me in a nutshell.

But here’s the thing, I came up empty. When I didn’t find the answers I was looking for, I rejected God. I dismissed Him as a good, but unreachable, ethereal being who only revealed Himself to a select few who could prove themselves worthy. I obviously couldn’t, so I pushed Him out of mind, resolving never to worry about it again. Who cares? I tried and I failed, so why bother? Strangely, I was drawn to the scriptures. Unfortunately, the only reason I read them was to criticize Jesus or so I thought. At times, Jesus would scare me. I would be convinced that I was one of those people who was kicked out of the banquet hall and cast into outer darkness where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth. At other times, I thought Jesus was out of His mind for doing some of the things He did. I’m also ashamed to admit I thought He was arrogant.

I realize now that I thought that way about Him because I was looking at Him as just some ordinary man. I didn’t think He was anything special. Then something began to change. My heart was softening. I started opening up to the idea that maybe Jesus was God after all. I also had this destiny-defining dream in which I was walking along a street on campus and Jesus came up behind me and gently grasped my arm and turned me around. When He looked at me, I saw this sweet compassion and deep sadness in His eyes. Then He said to me: “You still don’t believe?” I woke up confused, heart-broken and
scared to the core. I wanted to know who this Jesus really was.

When I read the scriptures after this point, I began to devour them. It was like all these lights were going off and I could finally see. The more I knew Jesus, the more I wanted to know. I was actually falling in love with Him! He lit me on fire! The time came when I invited Him into my heart, and I knew I would never be the same again. I wanted to find Him in an intellectual way, but He came to me in a personal way. Now, He is in me and He is here to stay. When I got Him, I got the Father! The Holy Spirit was always whispering in my ear, but now He was inside of me too and birthed a new spirit in me—the real me. Looking back, I’d be embarrassed about my foolish misgivings about Jesus if they didn’t serve to more acutely display the vastness of His kindness and patience with me. What do you think about Jesus? This is the single most important question you can ask yourself because it determines the outcome of your life.

If you are a believer, He is our life-force, our Friend, our King, our Lord, our Bridegroom forever. Our real lives are hidden in Christ. If you are not a believer, don’t be blind like I used to be. Don’t let Him be a stumbling block to you. It doesn’t matter where you come from, what you’ve been through, or what you’ve done. If you let Him, He will transform your life for the best. He’ll come in and never leave you. He’ll wash you with His blood, renew you with His Word, and seal you with His sweet Holy Spirit. I am passionate about Jesus because He is so worthy! I was once in darkness and bound by pride and intellectualism, but God so rich in mercy and grace saw fit to come to me and shine His light on me. What a God! Praise Jesus and give Him glory through endless generations now and forever! Amen.