1 John 4:9 (NIV)
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his
one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
God commandeth his love towards us, in that, while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Many years ago, in my first pastorate, I met with a
teenage girl in our congregation. She was about sixteen at the time, and she
was discouraged and becoming depressed. I tried to encourage her, but there was
a revelatory moment when she said, "Yes, I know Jesus loves me, he saved
me, he's going to take me to heaven—but what good is it when no boy at school
will even look at me?"
She said she "knew" all these truths about
being a Christian, but they were of no comfort to her. The attention (or the
lack of it) of a cute boy at school was far more consoling, energizing, and
foundational for her joy and self-worth than the love of Christ. Of course this
was a perfectly normal response for a teenage girl. Nevertheless it was
revealing of how our hearts work. [Jonathan] Edwards would say that she had the
opinion that Jesus loved her, but she didn't really know it. Christ's love was
an abstract concept while the love of these others was real to her heart.
[Timothy Keller, Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age
of Skepticism (Viking, 2015), page 163.]
Many of us may be looking for someone to love us, someone
to fill the empty spot inside of us, someone we know we can turn to in a
crisis. Let me clearly state there is only one who can fill every need you have
and that person is Jesus Christ. Jesus died for you, for me and for the world
that we would live eternal life through him. Know that when you can’t count on
someone else, you can count on Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment