Corona Devo 186

The fields are ripe for harvest, friends. 

No, I am not talking about zucchini, tomatoes or pumpkins, although those are plentiful right now.  I am referring to people.  Lost people.  Lack-of-purpose people.  Unloved people and empty people.  They are sitting in their homes and at their jobs and on the sidelines of their kids games, and they need Jesus.

Our world, politics, and media are trying to pull them farther and farther away from God’s love and His plan for their lives, and now is the time for us to rise up and speak up, for Christ.  Where would you be without Him?  Heck, even with Jesus I am a mess some days!  But I have direction and balance a lot more often than I ever did before knowing Jesus. 

The Lord gives us our footing in an ever-shifting world, and He is our true-North.  He is the only thing that brings sense or meaning to our lives.  And we know Him because someone cared enough to tell us about Him.  It’s time to get off of our spiritual duffs and share with someone about Jesus.

(9) As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth.  “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him.  So Matthew got up and followed him.  (10) Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and disreputable sinners.  ~Matthew 9:9-10

Matthew didn’t know that he was waiting-to-meet Jesus, but he knew that something was missing in his life, and the moment Jesus invited Him to follow, he accepted the invitation.  Matthew was in a despised-by-the-public job, and when you are hated, you stop caring about doing the right thing.  Matthew was lost.  Perhaps you feel lost today.  Look around, there are people we encounter everyday that are lost in today's culture and are wandering through life.   Whether they know it yet or not, they are just waiting to be asked to follow Jesus.  Why are we keeping the best thing that has ever happened to us a secret?  

So Matthew got up and followed him. (Matthew 9).  No hesitation, no looking back: Matthew got right up to follow Jesus.  We were created by God, and we all have a Jesus-homing-device in our hearts that is always seeking to sync with Him, even before we know Him.  Can you look back over your life and see people or situations that God was working in even before you knew it was Him?

Matthew went for it.  And then he wanted more: more time with Jesus and more of his friends to meet Him!

Matthew's example is awesome!  We should be spending more time with Jesus and we should be inviting our friends to meet Him!

Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and disreputable sinners.  ~Matthew 9:10

Realizing who Jesus is and how He changes your life, your self-worth and your future is compelling.  Matthew wanted to hang out with Jesus and those that followed Him, and Matthew wanted to tell all his buddies about Jesus too.  Jesus was never meant to be a kept-secret.  Why do we so often live our lives as such?

Why aren’t we throwing bashes at our houses with church friends and people that don’t know Jesus yet?

Does that sound out of your comfort zone? 

Too bad.  How about someone that we know or love burning in hell?  Is that out of our comfort zone?   (49)That is the way it will be...The angels will come and separate the wicked people from the righteous, (50) throwing the wicked into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ~Matthew 13:49-50).  

What are we afraid of?  Looking silly? 

Are we afraid of changing someone’s life by opening the door to Jesus?  

We have to get out of our comfort zones because time is flying. "Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest." (John 4:35).  This verse means that if we look around, we will see all of the people who need love, purpose, forgiveness, and acceptance.  And only Jesus provides all that our hearts yearn for.  

And the good news is that the details are not up to us.  Our job to "go and make disciples of all the nations" (Matthew 28:19), which includes our neighbors and family members and the check-out girl at the grocery store. But the rest is up to them--accepting Jesus is a personal decision that no one can make for you.  

But Matthew is a great case-study.  He jumped at the chance to follow Jesus when asked, and it changed his life.  There are a lot of isolated, depressed, lonely, angry, questioning people living life right alongside of us today.  Corona has brought many of us down.  But God picks us up, and pumps love and life back into our veins.

The only way people will come to see that Jesus is real is by the love and personal investment of someone that knows Jesus.  

The fields are ripe for harvest, friends. 

Let's DO this!

Blessings,

sarah

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com 

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