100 Days of Right Believing: Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing (4 page)

T
here is so much wrong believing today about who Jesus is. I am asking you to throw out every idea, concept, and picture that you may have of a “religious” Jesus. Allow me to introduce the real Jesus to you, for this is where it all begins. I’m not talking about the religious Jesus you may have heard about growing up, but the real Jesus who walked along the dusty streets of Jerusalem and upon the raging waters of the Galilee.

He was the one whom the sick, the poor, the sinful, the down and out, and the outcast instinctively gravitated to and felt at ease with. He was God in the flesh and He manifested God’s tangible love. In His presence, those who were imperfect didn’t feel fearful of Him, or sense judgment or condemnation from Him. To those who sought Him for healing, restoration, and supply—no matter what their past or background—He always extended a loving, compassionate heart and hand to them and oversupplied their need.

Contrary to what a lot of people think, you don’t have to be “religious” to have access to God and His help. In fact, the less “religious” you are, the better. The real Jesus didn’t come to bring a new religion. He didn’t come to be served and waited upon. No, He came to serve, and serve He did.

The real Jesus created the universe with one command and orchestrated the paths of each planet so that none would collide. He had every right to demand service from those He created, yet He supplied service. He bowed down and with His own hands washed the grime and filth from His disciples’ feet. Those same hands would later be pierced with coarse nails at the cross, and He would with His own blood wash us of the grime and filth of all our
sins by taking them upon His own body. What a far cry from the condemning, judgmental, faultfinding God whom many have portrayed Him to be!

This is the true Jesus—totally unlike what many of us have been taught about God. He is willing and able to meet your need today and love you into wholeness.

A
re you like many today who believe in a “religious” God? Do you believe that God is against you when you fall short, that He is angry with you when you fail, and that fellowship with Him is cut off when you make mistakes?

It’s no wonder then that instead of running to the one true solution, many sincere folks run in the opposite direction when they are hurting. So there is a great deception, a powerful, wrong belief about God that has trapped many in the vicious cycle of condemnation, guilt, fear, defeat, and addiction.

My friend, I want you to know today that God is a God of infinite grace. He is repugnant to the “religious,” but gracious and irresistible to those who are hurting.

No matter what you are going through today, whatever addictions may be binding you, right believing can and will set you free. Start with believing this powerful truth:

Don’t let the mistakes you have made in the past hold you back from reaching out to God and receiving His forgiveness for all your failures. Begin to believe right about the Lord, believe right about His heart and love for you, and your entire life will be transformed. Right believing always leads to right living!

I
encourage you to read the remarkable story of the Samaritan woman in John 4. Considered a woman with a shady past, she was gossiped about in her village and probably shunned for being a home wrecker, a “stealer of husbands.” Now, hers is not a fictional story. She was a real person, just like you and me. Her problems and pain, like many of ours, were real and hounded her every day… until she encountered a very real Savior!

Despite the custom of the Jews of that day to avoid any contact with the Samaritans, whom they perceived as spiritually inferior, John records that as Jesus was traveling from Judea to Galilee, “He
had
to go through Samaria” (John 4:4
NLT
, emphasis mine). Pause with me and think about these words for a moment:
Had to. Needed to. Must
. Words that speak not just of necessity, but underscore a steady resolve and even urgency! Jesus had deliberately scheduled a divine appointment with the woman at the well, though she knew nothing about it.

We know from the account that this ostracized, lonely woman had a life-transforming conversation with Jesus at the well. But make no mistake—it wasn’t she who sought out Jesus to talk to Him. It was the Savior who pursued the one whom others shunned. Do you know that He is still doing that today?

Do you have a past that you are ashamed of? Are you struggling to overcome something that you know is destroying you? Do you feel all alone and that no one understands the pain you are going through?

I want you to know that Jesus hasn’t changed. As He was for the Samaritan woman, the loving Savior is still your very present help in your time of need
(see Ps. 46:1). He knows the suffering, shame, and struggles you are going through right now. And even if what you are going through is a consequence of bad life choices and mistakes of your own doing, He doesn’t abandon and forsake you. No—a thousand times, no! He goes out of the way to have a personal appointment with you, to restore and rescue you. The fact that you are reading this right now is a confirmation that Jesus is reaching out to you with His love, grace, and forgiveness.

Talk to Him as the woman did. Taste and touch His grace and compassion for you as she did. And like her, discover Jesus’ forgiveness, freedom, and strength to walk into a bright new future.