Inviting Jesus

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.
– Proverbs 16:9 (NIV)

With every new year, we tend to plan. We make plans for what we want to achieve, we set goals for ourselves, we plan holidays, we plan our work lives, we plan to improve ourselves. This year I’m planning my wedding, I’m planning to write my master’s thesis in economics, I’m planning to start a new job and I’m planning to take part in two internships whilst working on myself to be ready to become a wife.

After all, a new year is a perfect time to set plans. It’s a fresh start, a new beginning of a sort, and setting goals is what helps us to grow, including in our relationship with God.

Plans can certainly be positive and helpful, but our plans should always include Jesus.

As a student, I’m constantly falling into the trap of believing that the task ahead can only be completed with my own strength, and that my situation is ‘irrelevant’ to Jesus. The thoughts echoing in my mind are ‘Jesus can’t study for me’, ‘Jesus can’t just tell me what I need to know to get through this exam’, and ‘getting up and doing the hard work is all up to me’.

To an extent, this is true. Jesus is not going to sit at my desk and cause my textbook to flip to the correct page. But I think the danger in this thinking is that it places limits on His mighty power that goes beyond our understanding. Jesus might not come down and study for me, but if I invite him into my study space, he is certainly powerful to move in it.

Jesus can move in ways we don’t expect. He can offer us a peace when it surpasses all understanding. He can give clarity when the mind is messy. I have certainly experienced both of these in my study life. But more than this, He can do anything He wants to do. The only way to experience Jesus’ full power is to invite Him into every space, every situation, into every crevice of our lives.

The more time we spend with someone and the more we invite them to do life with us, the more we get to know them and get to experience who they are. The exact same goes for our relationship with Jesus. Invite Him in because you want to know Him and He wants to know You. He wants to show you who He is beyond your current understanding of who He is.

Just because I don’t see how Jesus can enter this situation, is no reason not to invite Him into it. Just because study can seem an ‘irrelevant’ space for Jesus to enter, doesn’t mean he won’t prove me wrong and reveal to me layers of Himself that I knew nothing about, offering me a peace I didn’t quite believe in, or a solution I didn’t see before.
All this to say that nothing is irrelevant to Jesus. For He is in everything, and He made everything. More than that, He made us, He loves us, and He wants to go through our lives with us, and what we need to remember is that means our whole lives. Not just our Sundays, not just our worst and best moments, but everything in between. Let’s invite Jesus into our in betweens this year.

Invite Him in.

This is my challenge to you for this new year. Every plan you make, however big, however small, invite Him in. See Him move in ways you could have never anticipated. Recognise that He is Father and friend, and nothing is too small or too big for Him.

Invite Jesus in because He loves you.

Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.
– Psalm 36:5 (NIV)

Invite Jesus in because He understands you.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
– Psalm 139:13-16 (NIV)

Invite Jesus in because He wants to take your anxieties from you.

Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.
– 1 Peter 5:7

Invite Jesus in because He is your Father.

Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
1 Corinthians 8:6

This year, create plans, but let the Lord establish your steps. Do things, but invite Jesus into every single one of them and watch what He can do. Notice how He reveals Himself as saviour, Father and friend.

Happy new year!

Love Bianca.