How did you come to Jesus?

In John 2:19-20 Jesus tells the Jews to destroy the temple and that he will raise it up again in three days.  The Jews responded with it took forty-six years to build this temple, how are you going to raise it up again in three days.

Now, I know from reading verse 23, that Jesus was actually referring to his body as the temple, and that the Jews would destroy him, and he would be raised again in three days, but these two verses had me thinking.   They revealed something else to me and that is, why do we make a mess of our lives for 10, 15, 20 years and expect Jesus to change things over night. 

We all know that God is capable of miracles, for we are each a miracle that he created, but why would or should God give you a miracle, when you spent years not listening to him and living by your own fleshly desires.   

When most of us have come to Jesus we come beaten down, exhausted and drained from living the life we have wanted to live.  We have made our own decisions and lived for our emotions and not for the ramifications of them.   So when we are distraught and unable to be fulfilled by the fleshly desires we once had enjoyed, and are left empty shells of ourselves, we start to seek for God.  We start to seek for guidance and how to live our lives differently. 

For some people this isn’t how they come to God, but I think most of us come in pure exhaustion from living the life we had been living.  The fun of being rebellious and living by our feelings isn’t fun anymore and we are starting to believe there is more to life than what we are living.   I say whatever way that leads you to Jesus is a good way because your path has lead you to Jesus. 

But, why do we think that God is going to wave a magic wand over our heads and we will be instantly changed, to the person we “think” we should be.  Why would God want to change you that quickly without testing your heart and intentions? 

It makes sense to me that God doesn’t give most people miracles he needs you to do your part in the healing of your soul.  Jesus did the big part, the main part, when he died for our sins.  Jesus made the sacrifice that most of us wouldn’t make for the people we love dearly when he went to the cross for you and me.   He made it possible for us to live lives of a sinful nature and still come to God and be cleansed by the blood of Jesus and be forgiven.  Jesus made it possible for all of us rich, poor, black, white, educated or not educated to have eternity with him and God, so why would we expect to be “healed” from our pasts overnight? 

When we have been hurt by someone we love and hurt deeply, you might forgive them, but you don’t for the most part, throw open the doors of your heart, without making them do some work, to build your trust up in them again.  You want to test them, in a way, to make sure that they have changed, and that they aren’t going to be careless with your feelings like they had been in the past.  Well God does the same thing.

I know, it would be great for us all to have an instantly, but if we did why wouldn’t we continue to live a life that serves us and not God.   If it was that easy to just have an instant change we truly would never change.  There would never be a total cleansing of our hearts, minds, emotions, souls and desires. 

God has to test you, to an extent, to make sure that you indeed desire a total change.  He will give you the Grace and Mercy to do so but he has to see your intentions.   God has to see that you are stepping out and trying to change.  He knows that we are not perfect beings, once again, that’s why we are so blessed to have Jesus, and that’s why he gives us chance after chance.  God never gets tired of trying to help you.  God will never look at the person who is addicted to drugs and say to them, well; this is your fifth relapse, I just don’t think I can do this anymore.  No, God says, I understand and I see your heart, come to me, bring your burden to me and I will help you in your times of struggle.

If the Jews wouldn’t have labored for forty-six years on the temple do you think it would have been such a sacrifice to destroy the temple?  No, it wouldn’t have been a sacrifice at all.   Jesus knew the work and time that went into creating the Temple, and the intent behind creating the Temple, so for Jesus to say, destroy what you have taken so long to build, was saying to them make a sacrifice for God, tear down what you labored so long to create.   Now, Jesus knew that wasn’t the case here but could it be the case for you? 

Do you think that God can be saying to you, tear down the walls of control, reasoning, guilt, shame, fear and addiction, that you have spent twenty years building, tear them down and be exposed, so that I can build you back up again. 

There are many times in life you will hit the bottom.  You will come to the end of yourself and realize that you just have nothing left to give.  Hopefully in those moments, you have either already found God, or find God.  Let’s assume you have found God, those are the moments, I think, God has a little party for himself.  Not because we are in pain or struggling, but because he can then do his work in us.

We are the ones who prohibit God from working in our own lives, not God.  I have been struggling with a relationship, that means very much to me, and I am a person who doesn’t like to feel out of control in my life, so when I had to hand this relationship over to God, it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.   

I knew that God had a plan for this relationship, God even went far enough, to share his plan with me for the relationship, and yet I still struggled to hand it over to him.    I struggled with Casting my Cares on the Lord, and then leaving them with the Lord.  I would cast my care and say, here God have this problem, this problem, and this problem, then five minutes later I would walk right back over and take them all back.  

I grew up in a very destructive and abusive home, so I crave stability and structure in my life.  I had to “fix” my own problems in life and the problems of my family, many of the times as well, so I was very comfortable, being in the place of control.   It was a very easy role for me to fill, as I had been doing it all my life. 

Then in walks a problem I couldn’t fix.  Not just a problem I couldn’t fix, but a problem I had never come across before, and had no idea how to even begin to fix or repair, and it made me come to the end of myself.  

The relationship was extremely important to me, and still is, and it would hurt my heart, to see a person that I love, struggle with something that I couldn’t help him with.   I would pray, cry, pray, cry and beg God for help, to show me what to do and he did. 

God began speaking to me and showing me, the directions and plans, he has for this relationship.  And I know many of you right now are saying, oh, wow, I wish God would tell me what to do with my problem.  Well, I said the same thing, until God did start telling me what to do with my problems.  I struggled with having Faith and trusting God.   I knew, and know, that God gives us all gifts and we are to use them to bring people to him, and glorify him, but what I couldn’t understand was, why me.  I could stand in Faith for anyone.  I could believe that God was going to do miracles in your life, but when it came to my own my Faith and trust it was small.  

One day God said to me, I can’t restore your relationship until you have Faith and Trust in me.   I need you to believe that I can restore your relationship, to be able to do so.   I still struggled with this, and why, because I had to give God control of my life. I had to say OK, God, here you go.  I take my hands off of this and I surrender it to you.  This is still a struggle for me, so I don’t want to make it seem easy and carefree.  For some people it may be, but for me it doesn’t work that way. 

What I am learning, is that when I need to have control over something, I am telling God that I can do it better then he can, and that’s just a joke.   Not only can I not do it better than he can, but I can’t do anything without him.  I have decided to give all of this to God and do my part of the plan he has spoken to me.   I have decided to trust God. 

Would I love for God to use a magical wand and wipe away all of the pain, tears, fear, sadness, anger, control and feelings of rejection from me and this relationship?  Yes, YES, I surely would, but I know that’s not how it’s going to happen.  I know that God is using this to grow my Faith in him.  I know God is using this to grow my trust in him.  God is taking this trial in my life, and using it as a way to cultivate his nature and his characteristics in my life, and for my part; I have to surrender to what he is doing and trust him. 

I have to believe that God has chosen me to do his work in this world and that he has a plan of restoration for my relationship.  I have to believe that God is also doing a work in him as well.  

The testing of our Faith is a painful time, a time for us to try to be thankful for what God is doing in us.  God wouldn’t be testing you if he knew you were going to fail.  He is testing you because he knows you have the ability (through him) to pass the test.  

If God said to me here is your miracle, and in the miracle came the healing of my relationship, but not the changes that are needed in both of us to make a successful relationship in God, or you can suffer through the pain and the time and be changed from the inside out, I would take option two.  

I will suffer through the pain of this time to end up a stronger, more faith filled, trusting person of God, who can come to the relationship, if that’s God’s will, with what I have learned and rebuild the relationship, not only based on the changes that have occurred, but also knowing that all things are indeed possible through Christ Jesus who loves us. 

Chose to tear down whatever your Temple might be, and allow God to rebuild you in his image, his desire for your life, so that your Temple, will be built on the Rock, with a strong foundation of God, and not built on the sand of your fleshly desires!