How Well Do You Know Jesus?

Feeling rejected? An encouragement for you today. God is positively able to keep you in his grasp. Did you know he knows you intimately? He has counted the number of hair on your head. He knit you together in your mothers womb. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. God’s works are wonderful.

I have a friend named Sara (name is changed). Jesus knows her. She knows about Jesus. But, she doesn’t really know Jesus. She hasn’t connected with Jesus on the deepest levels. She was abandoned, abused, and labeled a loser from an early age. Sara lived her whole life in survival mode. When we talked about forgiveness and Jesus’s place in her life, she listened to it all, but kept Jesus at arms length. With Jesus at arms length, Jesus couldn’t get into the real healing process with Sara. He couldn’t get into her pain and bring her into new life and hope.

You see, Sara didn’t trust Jesus. Sara didn’t really trust any men for that matter. When someone has no trust in anyone, including God, that someone lives in fear every day.  That fear ate at Sara constantly. She literally lived off of the adrenaline of fear and knew no other place to live.

Sara, I wish you knew that Jesus really can heal you. I wish you knew that Jesus was rejected by his family. His brothers laughed off his miracles, his virgin birth, his calling and his cross. In fact, I can’t really imagine much more pain than being rejected by your family. Sara, Jesus knows your rejection. Jesus knows what it is like to be called names. In fact, he was run out of his home town, after they tried to stone him to death for being a false prophet. And these were the people who were supposed to be cheering for him. He spoke the famous words, “No prophet is accepted in his own country.”

Jesus was rejected by his closest friends. Friends that lived with him for 3 years of his life. They went everywhere together. He fed them, he healed them, he prayed with them, he set them free. When it came time for his real mission, he was utterly abandoned and betrayed. When he was hurting the most, his loyal friends became deserters. In fact, on the cross, when our sin was upon him, even the Father turned his back on Jesus. Jesus knew that this had to happen when he carried our sin. He was the advocate. He was the mediator between God and man. His rejection was our acceptance.

When Jesus was on the cross, he not only took your pain and your sin, he carried the rejection that you direct towards him on a daily basis. Yes. Jesus is rejected by you and me. He experiences the anguish of reaching out his hands to people he came to die for and watching them mock him in their hearts. On the cross, Jesus knew the times we would be ashamed of him. He knew every sin we would commit against him. He watched you ignore his call to pray and talk to him. He counted the days that your bible would collect dust before you opened it.

He listened to you take his name in vain, “knowing” you can “just apologize later.”

Jesus gets rejection. He feels the mother who’s child won’t call home. He knows the sibling who gets shut out. He knows the heart of the poor child who doesn’t have money for cool clothes. He knows the heart of the man who is turned down by his wife time and time and time again. He knows the desire for a hug and the hard cold truth of the empty arms.

Jesus even experienced the grievous loss of family and friends to death. Jesus wept.

So, when we are called to repent, to take up our cross and follow Jesus, we are not following a glowing face with no emotion and no heart. We are following the one who has walked in our shoes with no sin. He felt the sting of rejection, yet, he still went to the cross. He went to the cross to take our shame. He took our pain. He carried the weight of our sin. His death conquered and defused the power of our pain and the guilt of our past. He resurrected and we raised up with him.

So, to all the Saras out there….know Jesus. Meet the Jesus who is your creator God, the lover of your soul.

Spend time with Jesus today. If you never have repented and accepted him as your savior, do it now. If you are blessed by this revelation of Jesus today, please share with a friend who needs encouragement!