Invite Him in.

God is not easily offendable. Did you know that? I didn’t say you can’t do something offensive to Him. He is not easily offendable, those are two different things. Last week we were looking at questions. John the Baptist had a question for Jesus. We looked at it from John’s perspective last week. Let’s have a look from Jesus’ perspective.

Luke 1:39 – 45 says, “Afterward, Mary arose and hurried off to the hill country of Judea, to the village where Zechariah and Elizabeth lived. Arriving at their home, Mary entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. At the moment her aunt heard Mary’s voice, the baby within Elizabeth’s womb jumped and kicked. And suddenly, Elizabeth was filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit! With a loud voice she prophesied with power:

“Mary! You are a woman given the highest favor and privilege above all others, for your child is destined to bring God great delight. How did I deserve such a remarkable honor to have the mother of my Lord come and visit me? The moment you came in the door and greeted me, my baby danced inside me with joy! Great favor rests upon you, for you have believed every word spoken to you from the Lord.””

In the above verses we see how John the Baptist and Jesus were introduced while still in the womb. What I wanted to us to see is that John probably grew up being told who Jesus was. Which is why when Jesus arrived to be baptised by John, John was quick to say in Matthew 3:14, “Why are you doing this? I’m the one who needs to be baptized by You, and yet You come to be baptized by me?”

John knew who Jesus was. Yet when he had doubts, he didn’t pull Him to the side. He couldn’t because he was in prison. But he sent people to ask Jesus in a public setting whether He was who He said He was. If I was Jesus I would have been offended, but Jesus was not offended.

When we mess up, we tend to withdraw from God because we think He will react the way we react. He doesn’t look at things we way we do. My pastors have recently been preaching about owning our stuff. Being bold enough to come to Jesus with our mess, our shortcomings and that also includes our questions. Be bold to go to Jesus with your questions. He is not offended by our questions. Our questions invite Jesus into the place where we feel vulnerable, where we feel scared, where we are unsure. We are inviting God to come into that situation.

John could have sat with his doubts alone in prison being tormented by the enemy. But instead, he chose to speak out and ask Jesus the one thing that had been on his mind. Don’t sit in the torment. Invite Jesus in. You have a question, ask Jesus and see what He does. Invite Him in.

It’s one thing to ask God a question, it is another to trust Him with the answer. We don’t get to pick out of some multiple-choice options. God answers how He wants to answer. Sometimes His answer is Him sitting with you in your pain. His Presence does just as much as His words. He knows when to speak into your situation and He also knows when to sit with you and when to walk you through it. Trust Him with that.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.