People with a past (3)
2022-03-16Luke 13:12 NKJV
The woman in Luke 13 had tried religion, but it couldn’t help her. She tried doctors, but they couldn’t cure her. And the people around her thought her problem would never be solved. Even she thought that. But not Jesus. His promise is: ‘Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will…[relieve and refresh your souls]’ (Matthew 11:28 AMPC).
We can give our burdens to Jesus and receive rest. No matter how hard life seems, relief is just a prayer away. Whatever the obstacles standing in our way, we need to reach out to Jesus. Keep pressing towards Him. Never stop reaching out for Him. We don’t have to tell everyone our whole past. We only need to know that Jesus is calling us to Him. He knows every step, every moment of our past, but He calls us anyway.
He doesn’t see us as we are, but as we will be when His grace has been at work in our lives. The Samaritan woman at the well was an outcast because of her immoral life, but she was chosen to tell many more people about Jesus (see John 4:39). Matthew, who wrote the first book of the New Testament, was a despised tax collector working for the Romans when he met Jesus. But Jesus doesn’t examine our past in order to decide what He’ll do with our future. Saul of Tarsus, the murderer of Christians, became Paul the Apostle, author of half the New Testament.
Today, focus on these words: when Jesus saves you, you no longer have a past. You only have a future.