Blown Away

When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were bewildered and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Matthew 9:36NIV

Turning our thoughts to God also demonstrates our trust in Him. Even undesired things such as pain and problems can be reminders to communicate with God in prayer and worship. Focusing on Jesus’ Presence protects us from getting stuck on problems— like always going over and over them in our mind without making any progress, in fact stumbling backwards instead of leaping forward in faith, into the arms of God. 

And it blows me away that Jesus Christ is not a, one-dimension, messiah. He flipped tables. He walked on water. Our Lord felt great compassion, and that compassion motivated His sacrificial actions done in love. 

How many times have you been given an opportunity but your focus quickly falls off Jesus? In our modern day and age we're more focused on what we want the way we want it. We want our desires in a fast, easy, and comfortable way.  We want whatever we are doing or whatever we own to make us happy. But that is not true joy. 

Most of us have no problem doing Jesus' work as long as it fits into our schedule and satisfies our surface need for emotional happiness ..... then we take our eyes of Jesus and become focused on the wind, the storm, and depth of the water and we forget our Savior has called us to do the impossible. 

With impossible trust, faith AND joy. Imagine if Peter kept his focus on Jesus the entire time. What other impossible things would he have been able to accomplish? 

Isaiah 26:3 NET You keep completely safe the people who maintain their faith, for they trust in You.

And maybe you have been through some rough stuff in your life and are not proud of all the decisions you have made. I know I’m not. And maybe we let ourselves become listless and joyless thinking we haven’t always measured up to God’s standard, but that does not mean we are not valuable to God. 

The fact is, despite our choices, despite our past, despite our wrinkles, our value in God’s eyes has not changed. He alone gets to decide our worth. And through His grace, forgiveness, compassion and peace He provides, strength, joy and certainty in shaky times. 

It’s the same with Jesus Christ. He loves us unfailingly through the ages, yesterday and today.  Jesus has made Himself available to us. We might not feel worthy to come to Him, but He is trying to get to you.

He loves you and me and came to this earth to save us, to give us a future and a hope. Jesus walked in love because He IS love. It was about Jesus Christ two thousand years ago and it’s all about Jesus Christ today.  He is our strength. The Joy of the Lord is our strength. 

I’ve said it before but I am grateful that the Lord gave us motorcycles. They have taught me how to fall, how to get back up, how to work through a fear, but most importantly it has taught me how to find joy in the process of learning, with all the bumps and bruised ego. In our lives there is a risk with every opportunity we chase after.  So be sure it is God you are chasing!  Him you are learning for, striving for. 

And If we want to pray bold prayers for changed lives we need to learn to accept that it probably will not be a “safe” journey. We’re going to struggle, we’re going to hurt, and we’re going to fall. Where we find our joy is in the hope that Jesus is constantly preparing us for our purpose here on Earth and for our eternal stay in His kingdom.