We’re now moving into 2019. The parties are over, vacation time is spent, resolution lists are made (maybe even broken), and we’re back to the real world. New year, new you right? But for some of us, 2019 doesn’t feel new, it feels just like past years bringing our past problems with it. When I think back over the years of my life I can think of many poor decisions I’ve made. Most of those I wouldn’t want to repeat and I’m sure you can relate. People I’ve hurt, choices and mistakes I’ve made, and sins I’ve committed. Our past sometimes feels like an anchor around our ankle we’ve been missioned to drag behind ourselves that we can never let go of, or it won’t let go of us.

“Our past sometimes feels like an anchor around our ankle we’ve been missioned to drag behind ourselves”

Over the last several weeks there have been a number of situations in my life that have reminded me of my past poor choices. I would love to tell you I responded in the right way but I didn’t, I wanted to run. I wanted to hide and run and find a corner of the world where I could flee from my anxiety, my shame, and my guilt. Have you ever been there? Here’s the thing though, you can’t outrun those things. Anxiety, shame, and guilt are heart problems and if you’ve found a way to outrun your heart let me know. Listen, for those of us that have said yes to a relationship with Jesus, we’re told to run to him, not from him.

In Matthew chapter 11 it reads “Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” ~Matthew 11:28-30

In these verses Jesus instructs us to run to him yet don’t we often run from him? We allow our shame and guilt to drive us to do the exact opposite thing we’ve been called to do… find comfort and peace in Jesus. Here was my problem and maybe your problem too… that we take our shame, anxiety, and guilt and willingly attach it to our ankle when we’ve already been set free from it. Paul writes in Galatians 1, “So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.” That means that for those that have said YES to a relationship with Jesus, we’ve already been set free. The trouble is we have this tendency to keep going back to our chains. We drag them behind us year after year, never willing to let go. Why? Because the dark corners of our heart tell us, “…hold tight to them, you don’t deserve what Jesus has given you. You’re not worth it.”

Are we willing to go with what God has said about us instead of what our heart says about us?

Here’s the truth, don’t trust your heart, trust God’s word. God said you’ve been forgiven, God said you’ve been made new, God said you’ve been set free. So the challenge for you and me is to live as people who have been set free. Are we willing to go with what God has said about us instead of what our heart says about us? It’s time to stop running, myself included. In 2019, it’s time to leave our anchors in the past and live as people who are free.  

Ummmmmm!!! For literally the first time ever I was speechless. I had literally no words on how I should properly respond to this woman. A week before this exchange happened, my husband had filmed a quick video from our living room to the people of our church. Now, it should just be noted that although yes my picture frames were a hot mess, I have 3 kids, 2 dogs, a husband, and a college guy living in my home. SO yesss, my house is crazy and my picture frames are a hot mess. But all that being said, I was incredibly offended by the “words of wisdom” this woman decided to hand out to me and I let it eat at me for quite a while. Can I honestly tell you that my initial reaction was to love her with ALL of the thoughts running through my head in that moment? No.

“Can I honestly tell you that my initial reaction was to love her with ALL of the thoughts running through my head in that moment?No.”

Now if I am being completely honest with you and the people closest to me will agree, I am an easily offended person. I do not know why literally no idea. Things bug me probably way more than they should. I have a running joke with myself now that God often gives me devo inspiration based on the things that He is trying to teach me at the time and this time was no different my friends. The Bible is very clear that we should love as Jesus loves, because He loves us, including and especially to, the people who are so hard to love. Thankfully God gave us the perfect example in Jesus Christ on how to love those who are less than kind to us.

In Luke 22:47:51, we see an incredible example of love and grace for someone so undeserving. In this passage, Jesus is moments away from being arrested and sentenced to death. While He was in the garden speaking to his disciples, one of the twelve disciples, Judas, leads the men seeking to kill Jesus to the place where He is.

The scripture says “While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of man with a kiss?” When Jesus followers saw what was going to happen, they said “Lord should we strike with our swords?” And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. But Jesus answered, “No more of this!’ And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.”

Ok… so many things are happening in this but I want to focus on perhaps one of the most mind-blowing things to me! In this story, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples took out his sword and cut off the ear of a man WANTING TO KILL JESUS and in Jesus’ incredible love and grace He picks up the ear and HEALS THE MAN WANTING TO KILL HIM! What an incredible and crazy awesome example of how we need to continuously strive to love others no matter how ridiculously hard it is. Jesus took an incredibly difficult situation where He had every “right” to check out but instead took the opportunity to show sacrificial love to someone so undeserving. I, as such an imperfect human being, can only hope and try little by little, day by day to become more and more like Jesus Christ through the examples He lived out for us to imitate.

“Through this kind of love, Jesus shines and people will know Him!”

Loving people when it is hard is what we are called to do as Christians. Jesus says in John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you,” that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  To love someone is amazing, but to love someone when it is hard is incredible and it is through that kind of sacrificial love that Jesus Christ truly shines. Through this kind of love, Jesus shines and people will know Him!

Years ago, there was this song that came out by Casting Crowns called, “American Dream.” The song talks about a man who “pours all he has in a castle made with sand.” They describe someone who is living to work, someone who works and works and misses out on the joys of life. This song was produced in 2003, but I think this practice has gotten even worse by 2019. While it’s amazing that technology allows us to be able to work from home it can be a curse as well. How often do you feel like you never leave work because the emails don’t stop, or your next off day is circled on your calendar because you can’t wait to get to that next break? When we allow tasks to consume our lives we lose sight of other things that matter and ultimately are lacking trust in God.
 

“When we allow tasks to consume our lives we lose sight of other things that matter and ultimately are lacking trust in God.”

In Deuteronomy 5:12-15, God says “But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.” THIS IS ONE OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. But for some of us, when we think about all we have to do in a given week, it is hard to comprehend taking a day off!

It makes no sense! God why would I not work on the seventh day, there is money to be made, there are deadlines that I have to meet! Naturally, when we are told to do something we sinfully just don’t listen, we usually ask the question “Why?” This was me, I was asking God why, what do I gain by taking a day off from work and school? While I knew that I should obey this commandment because God said so, I still wanted to know how this could possibly benefit me!

On top of the scripture that supports that Sabbath, I found the answer to that question while I was scrolling through my Instagram feed. I came across this clothing company who was selling apparel with the saying “Trust God and Chill.” This saying intrigued me, aside from me being a shopaholic and instantly purchasing a salmon sweatshirt and camo hat, I realized that if I trust that God is good, all knowing, and has my best interest in mind I don’t need to know the answer to every question; I simply need to “Trust God and Chill.” For me, this all came down to the fact that I can be a control freak and I don’t like trusting others to do what I feel the need to do! I got trust issues! Something tells me that I am not the only one that struggles to trust God sometimes.

We as believers need to understand that we serve a God who knows the answer to every question and He knows the result of every situation. The Bible says in Psalm 147: 5, “Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.” When we put God first in our lives, we obey Him first. Which means that we take a sabbath because we trust that God is not asking us to do more than we can do in a 6 day week. Someone might read that and say, “I’ve got 100 things going on each day, I need every waking second to get it done!” My response would be, Are you doing too much? Are you doing more than God is asking you to do? In my times of peak stress, I am usually relying on my own strength! When I feel like I need to do it all, I am not relying on God and trusting in Him; I am trusting in myself.

“trusting in Jesus as our Lord and Savior not only gives you freedom from sin but also from the weight that this world will place on your shoulders.”

This doesn’t only affect your sabbath but it comes into play in all areas of life! When we surrender our lives to Jesus we are not only forgiven for our sins but we no longer do this life alone. We don’t have to know the answer to all the world’s problems because God does. We don’t need to know how our conflict at work will turn out because God does. We don’t need to put stress on ourselves to impress because we have an audience of One. There is freedom in surrender, trusting in Jesus as our Lord and Savior not only gives you freedom from sin but also from the weight that this world will place on your shoulders. Trusting God in your time management, your finances, your work situation will lead to peace in your life. There is a comfort when handing over our lives to Him and we Trust God and Chill.

So what would be your first thought? Robber. If you passed me on the road in the middle of summer wearing that, you’d think I was crazy and/or that I was a robber. Truth is, I am a pastor. Every morning I walk to the bay by my house and pray. As I get closer to the bay there is a stretch of woods mixed with marsh. It is insanely buggy. Like those giant bugs that annoyingly bite you. I now have one of those cool safari hats with a netting that drops down. However, it took two days with Amazon Prime sooooo, for two days I wore a mask and goggles. I felt weird because I knew what people would assume. I knew what they would assume would be reasonable. I also knew they were wrong and that I had a perfectly good reason to wear it. They would be reasonably wrong about me. 

This thought really struck me recently in a sermon I preached in Luke 7. Jesus comes to a small town and bumps into a funeral procession at the main gate. A man died leaving behind his widowed mother. He was her only son, and her husband had previously died. Jesus had compassion over the situation and raised the son back to life. This town, Nain, although small had experienced this type of thing in the past. Elijah and Elisha, prophets in the Old Testament had raised people to life in this region (arguably this town). They were familiar. And so it is no wonder that they say this about Jesus: 

“Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” Luke 7:16

Given their history, it was a very reasonable thing to say. You’d think in a religious sense being called a prophet is a great honor. On some level it is. But if you’re the Son of God who’s come to save mankind from their sin, there is only ONE fitting title; LORD. 

A mere prophet could not do what Jesus was going to do for their sins. Nice title, but woefully falls short. Jesus is Lord of all or He’s not Lord at all. 

Why do you believe what you believe? What title would you give Jesus? It is possible to give Jesus a ‘reasonable’ title, but it is also possible to be reasonably wrong. So what should you do? How can you ensure what you think of Jesus is accurate? You go to the source! Isn’t that what you do when you get a request on social media from someone you’re already friends with? This seems like you. It looks like you. It sounds like you. Very reasonably this is you. So shoot a text with a screenshot and say, “Yo, is this you?” Then you trust the response. Get an email from me asking for money and you know what you should do, QUESTION IT. I never email people asking for money. You bring your questions to the source and verify it. 

The townspeople in Nain never went to the source. They never questioned their conclusion about Jesus. They made a reasonable assumption. The assumption was wrong. They were reasonably wrong. You have your thoughts about Jesus. GO TO JESUS FOR VERIFICATION. Do you know people who have actually read His words (not just a Google search)? Ask them. Go to the source and pray, “God I just happened upon this random blog post, it has me thinking that there may be more to you than I originally thought, is there? Jesus, are you the Son of God? What does that mean? Help me in my confusion.” I have complete faith that God will meet you in that place. 

For those reading this that already know this truth, you know Jesus is who He says He is; the Son of God. You’ve searched, you’ve examined, you went to the source, and you have placed faith in Jesus. Great. How is love one love all going? Are you loving people well enough to get them to question their unbelief or misguided belief? Isn’t that the point? We love people well. We love people with a message “God loves you and so do we.” Do you know what is on the back of that card? A website. Know what the website is? www.thewhy.one. We hope that our love for people makes them ask WHY. Why are you doing this? As they consider all this, the hope is that they would continue to question their presuppositions about Jesus. Our love for people should cause them to ask questions they maybe have never asked before. As they start asking the right questions, I’m confident they will find the real Jesus. Jesus is the truth so seeking truth will always lead us to Jesus. If it doesn’t, there is a lie somewhere along the way. 

So, go to the source. Seek truth. Ask the right questions. And if you know, love people along their spiritual journey towards Jesus. May your love for others guide them to the TRUTH; JESUS! 

Keep praying for ONE and keep attacking LOVE ONE LOVE ALL!