by Trisha Bridges Smith
Have you ever felt like there was something missing in your life? You have friends. You have money (a little anyway). But you’re not exactly happy with your life…
Or maybe you’re just the opposite. You’re parents are unemployed or you’re unpopular.
Even further, maybe you’re a combination of the two in various forms.
Maybe you’ve recognized this vacuum inside of you, and tried to fill it. Possibly with money, friends, alcohol, sex, drugs, music, or pornography. These fillers may have worked for a momentary high, a week, or a year, but you must have more and more of it until you spin out of control. The more you get, the more you want… but the void is still not filled.
There is one thing that maybe you haven’t tried. It has filled the hole in many people for many years. It’s more than a chemical substance, more than mere sexual pleasure, more than financial abundance. And it remains unchanged, regardless of your position in society, your standing with the drug dealer, or Liquor store clerk.
It’s the Love of God.
Most people have heard that God loves them. But did you know that God likes you, too? The nature of God is love… God IS love, but most people don’t know or don’t realize that God likes them. There is a difference between loving and liking someone. There are some people that you love, but don’t particularly like. You know, people that you’d cry at their funeral, but wouldn’t want to go on vacation with. It’s not like that with God. He likes you.
He created the earth and all that is within it. He fashioned the ever-expanding universe and set the trillions of stars by flinging them with His hand, and they landed right where they were supposed to be. He created the beauty of the mountains. The splendor of the roaring oceans were His handiwork.
But… His most prized possession is you.
He sent His Son. His first and only Son. Jesus was born in a lowly manger, in a small town in Israel. God’s very own Son wasn’t born into some wealthy royal family, but to a carpenter. He only preached for 3 years, but those few years brought about sweeping changes in the world then…. and now.
Jesus didn’t just die and go away. He was beaten. His beard was painfully plucked out. Whips, with many straps and on the ends of these straps pieces of bone… with these He was lashed on His back until His back was nothing more than a mangled mass of flesh. On top of this shredded skin He carried His own cross. Made out of heavy lumber, the tree was not light, nor sanded and varnished like your bedroom dresser. Splinters dug in to His already mangled back.
After He carried His own death device to the top of a hill, Roman soldiers drove spikes into His wrists, bursting arteries, and smashing bones and cartilage. His feet were situated over one another and another spike was hammered through them.
In spite of this, He did not say one thing to His tormentors, but rather He asked God, His Father, to forgive them.
You might be wondering why Jesus would do this.
He did it for you. And each time you turn him away, He relives the pain He went through that day.
The whole inside of you is immense. God is even bigger than the void. He can fill it and overflow your life.
All you have to do is accept it.
But…. How? It is simple. Just pray. You can make up your own prayer or you can use this sample prayer.
Dear Jesus,
I know that I am a sinner and I want to be saved. I repent of my sins, every one. I don’t want to do evil any more, I want to do righteousness through the blood of Jesus. I’m asking you to please forgive me of my sins against you. I want a new life in the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to be everything that You created me to be. I believe that Jesus shed His blood and died for me so that I could be saved from my sins. I believe that He rose from the dead on the third day. I want to be your child. Thank you for being merciful to me, a sinner. Thank you Lord Jesus for saving my soul from hell. I’ll live for You. I’m giving You myself. Please show me what You want me to do. In Jesus’ Name I pray,
Amen.
Be the first to comment