Do you feel down, discouraged, even depressed? Does your soul hurt? Is your mind spinning at times? Are you bewildered and do you feel lonely? Do you wish there was a magical answer? There may be times in which you feel you are all alone on an island. Perhaps friends have abandoned you. Maybe society is a jungle to you.
Could it be that you are bewildered about spiritual matters? Maybe you have ignored God up until now. Perhaps the whole idea of the Bible is only what you’ve learned from skeptics. You put on a front to the outside world as someone who is competent and capable. You try to have all the answers for how to live a good life. You’ve tried the best that you can. However, there still seems to be something down deep inside that is missing. Maybe you don’t even want to admit it to yourself. It might have occurred that you have really lived two lives; the outside life where you have been trying to mingling with the world and be happy. Still, that inside life of yours is something you are not even familiar with yourself. You are a stranger to yourself. If you were to be honest to yourself, you would recognize the turmoil within and the confusion that haunts you.
My friend, there still is hope. In Matthew 11 John the Baptist found himself in a similar position. He was imprisoned and sent two of his followers to Jesus asking if he was really the Christ, the Messiah who is to come. John was questioning his own ministry and the identity of Jesus. He was surrounded by prison bars. Then further in the chapter Jesus questioned his hearers for what reason they came to listen to John the Baptist. He went further to pronounce woes onto cities for they have not repented. Suddenly Jesus breaks out in a prayer to his Heavenly Father, followed by an invitation to whoever would hear and respond. He said, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
All the pain, misery, confusion, and misdirection your life is been going lately can be answered by Jesus’ invitation to accommodate him. I’m not just talking about prayer! Instead, I am talking about enveloping yourself in the who that Jesus is. He is reminding you that living close to him is much better than the trail you have so far walked. He says come unto me. He said those words because he knew there are so many people spinning their wheels and aching inside. If you have not known Christ as Savior, ask him into your heart. Really, really ask him into your heart and then live a life that reflects what you’ve asked because living a life of Christ is the best kind of life. That invitation is also to believers who find themselves burdened by the world. No believer is ever above the fray that Satan brings with temptations and trials. His invitation still stands – com unto me.
Then when you come to Jesus, things begin to change. He will say to us that we must go to all the world. It is God’s intention to equip us. He wants to give us talents and abilities. In every walk of the Christian life there are steppingstones of growth. As we submit to his Holy Spirit, he will equip us to serve him. He will give us gifts to use so that we might in turn as gifted people be given back to others. We are not just going to Christ so that we might escape this world and all of its downside. When we submit ourselves to Jesus, we are making ourselves available to what he wants to do to us, in us, and for us, and with us. All through the New Testament there are discussions and examples of people sold out to Christ. Some of the most unlikely people have been used by Christ to literally change the world. No one would’ve guessed that the great persecutor of believers submitted himself to Christ and became the great representative of him. After we come to Jesus, he will equip us. He will comfort us. He will take the fog from our brains. Then he will tell us to go. Go out into the world, even our own world and share the blazing truth that has been branded on your heart. Being a Christian, you are also a Christlike one. You will be representing him with whatever he equips you wherever he sends you and whatever he tells you to say. You will not be your own. You will be his. You will have a great transformation from the person who was down to the person who is above. We are not okay under the circumstances even though we might say so. After embracing Jesus, we are above the circumstances even though the same illness, financial situation, or disappointments that still exist. Through Jesus we can be above at all because we have come and he sends us to go!
Christian Writer 