Feeling forgotten? Facing a future that appears bleak?
29 April 2020
Time is Ticking By: How About Your Life?
12 June 2020
Nudges from nature: Do you know how precious you are to God?
by Peter Elks - 19 May 2020
One bright morning last week there was a ‘happening’ in our back garden when lots of little fledgling sparrows suddenly appeared as if from nowhere. They were fluffy, scruffy, hopping about and squawking for food that busy parents were popping into their wide-open beaks.
It made me think. Do you know how precious you are to God?
Nature goes on its lively way while human life seems to have come almost to a standstill. Billions of sparrows (and many other species) are being born into the world and all they care about is what falls into their beak.
Jesus said that God feeds them every day (present tense) because He tenderly watches over His creation even though it’s a ruin of what He made.
Jesus also said that you’re worth more to God than a ton of sparrows. (Matthew 10:31, Luke 12:7)
God doesn’t measure worth by wealth – or lack of it; nor by gifts, talents, good looks, intelligence or popularity on social media.
You’re way more valuable to Him than any of those things. Jesus paid the ultimate price to bring you back to God. That’s how much He thinks of you.
Maybe you feel there’s nothing special about your life, if so that’s great because Jesus wants to give you a completely new, totally different kind of life.
It’s a life that only He can give.
Look at how he treated a ‘nobody’ who met him on the road one day: (Mark 10:46-52)
There was a blind beggar called Bartimaeus sitting by the side of the road. He was there because it was his patch to ask passers-by for spare cash.
He heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, so he shouted at the top of his voice, ‘Jesus, son of David have mercy on me.’
(To call him ‘Son of David’ was to give Him the highest respect possible).
You’re way more valuable to Him than any of those things. Jesus paid the ultimate price to bring you back to God. That’s how much He thinks of you
People told him to belt up, as people still do if you really want to follow Jesus.
But Jesus called for him to come near, & they soon changed their tune. They said, ‘Cheer up! Get up! He’s calling you!’
Jesus calls you and me by name too: ‘Come to Me and I will give you rest.’ (Matthew 11:28-30)
So Bartimaeus threw away his beggar’s moth-eaten old rag of a coat and came to Jesus, probably a bit scared; after all, he’d bellowed out his name a few times and everything had gone suddenly quiet. And he couldn’t see Jesus’s face. He couldn’t see the welcome written there.
That’s how we come to God too – we can’t see His face, and we’re a bit scared about committing ourselves to the Unknown, but…He invites us to come.
Then Jesus asked him a straight question:
‘What is it that you’d like me to do for you?’
God asks us the same thing, and if we want salvation from sin and a new life from Jesus, God’s answer is ‘YES!’ every time. (Romans 10:13)
The fact that Bartimaeus had chucked away his old beggar’s coat showed that he meant business: it was all or nothing.
So he told Jesus exactly what he wanted. ‘My Master’, he said ‘I want to see.’
You might think it was obvious, but Jesus likes to hear us tell Him exactly why we’ve come to Him.
So what happened next?
Jesus said, ‘OK then, go about life with new sight: because you believe in Me, I’ve healed you.’
And Jesus gave him new eyes.
Then Bartimaeus followed Jesus as he walked on the road ahead: which was the best way to say ‘thank You.’
Jesus makes the spiritually blind see today: when we get a glimpse of who He really is – ‘God manifest in the flesh’ - we want to belong to Him forever.
And that’s exactly what He promises when we turn to Him from going our own way, from following our own desires, and put our trust in Him: that we’ll live with Him forever, as sons and daughters of the living God. (John 3:16, 2 Corinthians 6:18)
Will you follow Him today?
