How precious are you?
Jesus, the anointed one, regards us with such high esteem that he shared his character with us. He is love. We can see this in his approach to us.
He is inclined to be good towards us; He has our best interest at heart. He accepts us unconditionally, just as we are with our shortcomings and failures. We don’t have to pretend, we can just be ourselves in his presence. It is no effort for Jesus to reach out to our needs. He spontaneously gives himself for our benefit. He knows when to withhold things from us that will be detrimental to us. He knows when we need encouragement. He knows when we need praise to build us up.
How do we know this is the attitude of Jesus towards us? First of all he gives us the freedom of choice. He does not force himself on us. He allows us to choose extreme suffering in hell if that is what we want. The poverty and suffering in India is bad, but worse is their belief in karma. It disallows them to reach out and help the poor suffering people because help would change their karma and worsen their situation in their “next lives”. We chose to live independently from him, which brought a lot of suffering our way. But he did not say. “you want to be independent, now suffer”. No! He came into our world, lived among us being born in Bethlehem and sacrificed himself on the cross for us to pay our karma. He did not insist that we must first do something about our shortcomings and failures. While we were his enemies, he sacrificed himself in our place. He invites us to be his friends.
Do you have a bosom friend? Someone you can share absolutely anything, everything with. Someone you will entrust with your deepest secrets. Friends stick together through thick and thin. In time of need you discover who your real friends are. They are there for you no matter what the cost in time and effort. Well, Jesus wants to be your bosom friend. He invites you to be his friend. He gave everything for you. He is doing everything to bring joy to your life (John 15 vs 11,15).
Dr Phil says you cannot give what you don’t have. We can’t enter into a lasting love relationship if we have not experienced the love of Jesus. Do you agree?