"On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." John 20: 19-21 (NIV)
I love how God comes and finds us - no matter where we have managed to "lock" ourselves away. I think one of the main reasons we "lock" ourselves away is fear. Fear of...failure (or success for that matter); being discovered; being hurt...Jesus finds us and sets us free.
He sets us free to be ourselves. One of the biggest lies we come to believe as people, is that God cannot possible want me...as me, or that he possible would want to use me...as me! We all think that we must first change, be different, do different, look different...
But in this story we see Jesus finding a bunch of men who were scared (locked away) and who believed that they were "failures" and that they were not "good enough".
Not only does he come looking for them, but when he finds them notice that he doesn't rebuke them but instead he speak life to them: "Peace be with you".
And with that he set them free and he tells them that he wants THEM!
Finally notice how he then sends them out into the world.
Remember: Jesus will seek YOU (just as you are...he does wait for you to first change), speak life to you and unlock you from your place of fear, and then send you into the world!
Now I cannot guarantee that you will enjoy the adventure or that it will always just be pure joy and bliss but what I can guarantee you is that if you let them pass you by, you will always regret it!
