The Lord knows what we need!

Luke 5

One of the lies the enemy tries to promote is that God doesn’t really care about us, in the scheme of things that we are not important. Nothing could be farther from the truth! Jesus died on the cross because we are important to God, He knows us by name, sees all that we go through, and even has the shafts of hair on our heads numbered. I think that makes us pretty important, God values even the minutest detail of our lives.

In this chapter four people are shown that God knows and loves them. First let's look at Pater, Peter does not see himself as a good man, he sees himself as a grunt, a cog-in-a-wheel. He is a fisher who gets by and that is it. This carpenter comes along and tells him how to fish not to reduce his worth or value but to increase it. Sometimes God creates miracles for us so that we will see accurately who we are and how God sees us. When Peter obeyed, the catch was overwhelming, Peter realized just how far from God he was. Jesus took the opportunity to help him to see himself the way the Father sees him, not as a sinful man but as a man who can change the world. He is a fisher of men!

The leper in verse 12 had a slightly different problem he wasn’t necessarily battling his sinfulness but a sense of unworthiness. He was saying to Jesus, “I am so unworthy. Being a leper, he was plagued with the guilt of I must be cursed of God, I must be lower than lower, God must love everyone besides me because I am cursed with leprosy. Jesus healed his body but more importantly healed his spirit and mind as well. Jesus showed him that God loved him and that his leprosy did not stop the love of God for him.

The paralytic seemed to be bound by his legs not working but in reality it was something else. This man had friends who genuinely loved him, men willing to rip the roof off of a house so that he could get healed. From the outside, he must have seemed like a happy guy. People generally don’t want to hang around miserable, whiney people. He had a secret. He had done something in his past that he felt was so horrendous that he could never be forgiven. Jesus knew that and went right to the heart of the matter. Jesus said to the man, “your sins are forgiven!” The man did not even have the faith to believe that he could be forgiven, but Jesus saw the faith in his friends and moved with compassion went to the root of the matter and set the man free, through forgiveness.

Tax collectors were most hated in Judea. They were Jews who served the Romans. They were considered sell-outs and thieves. They were rejected by all but the other “rejects” of society. What Matthew needed was to know he was not a reject but that he was loved and accepted. It is not people’s opinions that matter but God’s. Jesus simply said “follow me” which said to Matthew, I love you and accept you. Jesus sealed the acceptance in Matthew’s heart by going to his home.

Where are you today? Is there something that is stopping you or those around you from knowing you are valued and loved? If it is you allow the Lord to show you in your place of need how much He loves you! If you are seeing it in those around you, ask the Lord to show you what they need, from Him and you, to show them they are loved and accepted by God!

Tomorrow – Luke 6