How Jesus Sees You When You’re Down
Nov 13, 2017 10308
How does Jesus see you when you’re down? You know how you see yourself: as alone, worthless, unloved and unlovable, and basically as a failure. But the important thing is not how you see yourself, but how Jesus sees you. Because if you can allow how Jesus sees you to become your reality, then you can get through anything!
There’s a story about this in Matthew 11. It’s about Jesus and John the Baptist. A few weeks earlier, John the Baptist had stood by the Jordan river and, when he saw Jesus, he had cried out,
Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29.)
John had stood up courageously to Jesus. But now things had changed. John had been arrested and thrown into a dark dungeon. It looked as if there was no hope, and like this was the end for him. And most normal human beings, John had fallen into despair, fear, and depression. John began to doubt everything he had seen, heard, and believed.
That’s why he sent a message to Jesus with the sad question,
Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else? (Matt 11:3).
You can well imagine the muttering of the crowd around Jesus when they heard this question from John. They might have been saying something like this,
“We were fools all along when we went out to go out to see the Baptist in the wilderness. Look how he ended up! Ha ha! Abandoned by God in Herod’s dungeon! Just another fraud!”
I can also imagine Jesus’ righteous anger that the crowd should think this of his faithful cousin John, and he fired back at them,
What did you expect when you went out to see him in the wild? A weekend camper? Hardly. What then? A sheik in silk pajamas? Not in the wilderness, not by a long shot. What then? A prophet? That’s right, a prophet! Probably the best prophet you’ll ever hear… No one in history surpasses John the Baptizer (Matt 11:7–14, MSG.)
During the rest of what he has to say to the crowd in this chapter, he continually emphasises John’s strength, courage, and faithfulness. In fact, he tells them that he is the most successful, and the greatest man, ever to have been born into the world (v.14)!
Trust in Jesus, and in how he sees you through his eyes of grace.
There clearly seems to be a real disconnect between what John is feeling in prison and how Jesus sees him. John is feeling fearful; Jesus sees him as courageous. John is feeling weak; Jesus sees him as strong. John sees himself as a failure; Jesus sees him as the most successful man who ever lived.
The question is, which of these views reflects reality. They can’t both be true at the same time.
I’m willing to stake my life on whatever Jesus says being true, over and above whatever John might have felt about himself. In fact, I do stake my life on it, because the question is not how Jesus saw John the Baptist when he was down, but how does Jesus see me when I’m down.
Could it be, that just like with John, Jesus sees successes instead of my failures, strength instead of my weakness, courage instead of my cowardice, and innocence instead of my guilt? If you belong to God, when he looks at you, even if you’re feeling down, he sees you as his beloved child, an overcomer, and he will defend you fiercely, right to the end.
In fact, John the Baptist did overcome, because in Matthew 11, Jesus says that he won the kingdom of heaven, he achieved eternal life. There can be no greater victory than that. No matter how low you may appear to have sunk, trust in Jesus, and trust in how he sees you through his eyes of grace. – Eliezer Gonzalez
Eliezer Gonzalez
Oct 23, 2018
You're welcome Ahmed, in the name of Jesus. Grace and peace, Eliezer
Ahmed
Oct 22, 2018
Thank you very much Eliezer for this message,it's has blessed my Life Greatly,may the good Lord continue to use you mightily.
Favour
Sep 17, 2018
Thank you so much from today I will begin to see myself as Jesus sees me
Caius Ezeanya.
Jun 24, 2018
Bro. David you seem not to understand Grace and it's workings. No man under grace will deliberately sin.
Eliezer Gonzalez
Jun 14, 2018
Linda, you've reminded me of how much I love the Gospel. God bless you! Eliezer
Linda A Johnson
Jun 14, 2018
David, I read your reply to Eliezer's blog, "How Jesus Sees You When You're Down," and it seems to me that you are struggling somewhere between salvation by grace and salvation by works. I struggled for years with that. Now Eliezer answers your questions in his blog, "Salvation Made Easy." I am quoting him, "When you live with the certainty that your salvation is assured a a result of Christ's victory.... You can enjoy life, knowing that each mistake is an opportunity to learn, and that it doesn't count against you, because of the grace of God. The stress of performance is taken off your shoulders, because you know that Jesus has already finalized the score, and placed it on your account. This doesn't mean that you live carelessly; not at all! You treat your life as a wonderful privilege that has been granted to you by Jesus, and you want to give your best for Him... I'm talking about salvation; I'm not talking about the struggles you will always have because you're a follower of Jesus Christ There will always be struggles within you, and outside of you, but you will never find peace and rest until you understand that your struggles is not to be saved, but because you've already been saved. When you accept Christ's gift of salvation, he takes away the stress of performance an in its place He gives you the peace of grace." End of quote. Remind your friend, if he is choosing to live carelessly, that the Lord we love has already saved us if we put our trust in Him and want to please Him who has done it all for us will turn him from many a temptation. "We know that our salvation is not dependent on us anyway but because of what Christ has done for us. Being born again does not mean we won't sin. When we accept the sacrifice of Christ in our behalf it changes us, and it is the result of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is the result of our salvation not the reason of our salvation, quoting Eliezer again from his, "The Three Musts of Salvation." And again from same source, "The more we look to Jesus lifted up at Calvary, the higher that we will lift Him up in our lives. As we do this, selfishness will diminish in our lives as the fruit of the Spirit is manifested." Now that's the, "Good News of Salvation," is it not?
Mideksa Motuma
May 15, 2018
I am happy for your work thank you
Eliezer Gonzalez
Nov 17, 2017
Thanks for your thoughts, David. I agree with much of what you say. However, yes, I am saying that God sees all who have faith in him as sinless – completely perfect. That is the very essence of the Gospel, and apart from that there is no Gospel. That is what it means to be justified (or made righteous) by faith. Too be born again does not mean to stop sinning. The Holy Spirit brings a new living principle into our lives by which we now love God and hate sin, whereas before it was the other way around. However, while the fruit of the Spirit is produced in our lives, during our entire lifetimes, God will always see us as perfect in Christ, while we trust in him. Grace and peace... Eliezer
David Clark
Nov 16, 2017
In your devotion or blog, you seemed to be saying that God sees us as sinless. While, our sins are forgiven in Christ's blood, and He will remember it no more, if we continue to live in sin instead of the new creature, born again into the heart and mind of Christ, we will reap consequences. The Bible says in 1 John 1:9 KJV "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The idea here appears to be that this cleansing does not happen if we continue in this sin. Most preachers tend to preach forgiveness, and that God will remember it no more and that God sees us through the blood of Jesus, without considering what happens and how God sees us if we continue to live in the old sinful man instead of Christ. We must believe in our heart. This means in all that we are, our mind our words our deeds our attitude, everything. We speak of football players that they have a lot of heart, when they give their all. We speak of horses with a lot of heart because they give their all. Just so, if we are "born again" in our heart, we adopt the heart and mind of Christ and adapt to the heart and mind of Christ and we give Him our all. By their fruits you shall know them. I am not saying Christians do not sin, I am saying just as Paul in Philippians 3:14 KJV "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." This mark and prize and high calling is living in the heart and mind of our savior. Pastors seem to preach more forgiveness no matter what, without reflection on who we are supposed to be in the new creature, born again. Being born again is more that words, it is who we are. We are either living in Christ Jesus in all that we are, or as in Mathew 13, the parable of the sower. Or as in the parable of 10 virgins in Matthew 25:1 KJV "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom." We see that the 5 without oil were shut out. It is important to stress who we are to be as the new creature, born again in Christ Jesus. Pastors stress the importance of who God is and say it is unimportant who we are. It is true when we come to Him in repentance, who God is, is important. Who we are is important also in that we must be repentant and if we are born again we must strive to enter in at the strait gate, into the new creature, born again into the heart and mind of Christ. The fruits of the new creature should be in us, and we should be crucifying the lusts of the flesh. In this it is important, who we are.
Festus Oppong
Nov 3, 2019
God bless you for accepting the challenge of fulfilling the great commission even on these platforms