Friday, May 31, 2013

What Jesus Thinks About You

Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. — Matthew 9:22, ESV

I have preached this account so many times. It is one of my favorites. And every time I love to focus on the fact that Jesus calls the woman, “Daughter.” When everything seemed against her and a whole community and society would have seen her as cursed by God, Jesus calls her daughter. As she struggled with her own self-worth, Jesus called her daughter. As she struggled with her thoughts of inadequacy and was tortured by her insecurities, Jesus called her daughter.

So what about me? Doesn't that sound selfish if you're really being honest? Absolutely. For twelve years this woman had struggled with a discharge of blood, making her unclean in society, but did her identity in Jesus' eyes change on that day of healing or had she always been “daughter” to Jesus? And so what about me? How often I am struggling with thoughts of inadequacy and insecurity. It is so easy for me to actually believe that I am a waste or that I am not measuring up. It is so easy for me to live in my failures rather than to live in Christ's freedom. It is so easy for me to be plagued with thoughts of failures and insults coming from within or from an Enemy who wants me to doubt Jesus and my identity in him. It is so easy for me to believe that I am cursed by God because of the thoughts that I so often fight against, truly believing yet never publicly admitting that I feel like God loves me based on how well I battle the motivations of my heart and the thoughts of my mind. And this mind game has been going on since I started ministry, now about 20 years ago.

So what about me?

Take heart, MY SON, your faith has made you well. This is what I hear this morning. This is what I want to receive in full faith and assurance. This is what my Jesus thinks about me: I am a son of the living God, adopted and grafted in to the family of God because of faith in Jesus. I am a son of God, dearly loved and adored by my Father in heaven who loves me enough to discipline me when needed, gently and meekly dealing with me every moment within the process. I am adored by a holy and ferocious Jesus who is not ashamed to call me his own. I am liked by a God who is proud of me as I strive to live for him, but who's liking of me is not based on my conduct of that day. I am loved. I am his and he is mine. That's the truth, no matter what I hear or think later in the day. That's it.

So: what about you?

No comments:

Post a Comment