Enjoy the Day! - April 18, 2011

Good Monday morning! The rain and clouds kind of make it seem like Monday is weeping for us. Perhaps you have to go back to work this morning after a wonderful weekend and the rain just seems somehow appropriate. The day may be gray, but your heart doesn't have to join in. Jesus is with you today, and he will never leave you whether the sun is shining in the sky or the clouds are pouring out rain. We may be tempted to think that the dreary weather doesn't matter to Jesus in Heaven, but it does. You might feel too small for the Lord to notice this morning. Surely your own feelings are quite beneath the Lord's attention as he works with the world leaders and famous ministers on this day. Wrong answer! How each of us is feeling today is very much on the Lord's mind. If you are sad, Jesus is not going to come in with false cheer and trite sayings; he will sorrow with you. If you feel happy and tip-top this morning, Jesus will rejoice with you. The Holy Spirit reminds us of Jesus and makes intercession for us with the Father. We may feel down this morning, but there is a lot going on in our behalf that we need to be aware of! Even in my day, and I don't have someone piling up assignments on my desk as you do, I find it difficult to concentrate on more than one thing at a time. Yet, there is God the Father in Heaven, looking down on the Earth and listening to each and every person who believes in His Son. Every prayer and supplication, each complaint and moan, God hears. God is also waiting with the Son for that special prayer, that one that all of Heaven waits for: the simple prayer of repentance and humble belief in the saving grace of Jesus Christ coming from that one who didn't believe a few moments earlier. That same prayer that you may have made as a young teen, or as an older adult, the prayer that laid your life at the foot of the cross and began a life of believing in God's own Son. You and I didn't come to the Son just to be abandoned. God didn't mark up some tally on a board in Heaven and then shift his attention to the next project on his heavenly to-do list. When Jesus found you and raised you up, the devil immediately began telling you lies. One might have gone something like: "Okay, now you've confessed and now you feel better, but now you have to earn God's favor for the rest of your life to get to Heaven! Ha, ha, hope you enjoy all that hard work!" But, Jesus didn't say that. Jesus invited us to come to him to find rest; to take on his yoke which is easy and his burden that is light, and to learn from him because he is gentle and humble. That doesn't sound like hard work to earn heavenly favor. Jesus also said that he would never leave us or forsake us. You know, I kind of like listening to the Word instead of the lies. Enjoy the day and thank God for the blessings he has provided! Bucky