April 3, 2024

Sometimes there are things that get in the way of us seeing Jesus, aren’t there? When I read the passage today, my mind flashed back to when a friend of mine who didn’t go to church anywhere agreed to go to Youth Camp with me. All week, I kept praying for him to get saved. Finally, on the last night when EVERYONE gets saved, he still didn’t move. When I looked over, he was gripping the back of the bench in front of him so hard his knuckles were white. The camp director came up beside him and asked him if he’d like to go forward. He shook his head. “I can’t,” he said. “What would they think?”
The “they” my friend was referring to was the group of guys he hung out with at home. Guys that he knew would make fun of him if they heard he’d got religion. The guys that he was the semi-leader of and whose adoration he wanted. The guys to whom it was important for him to be “cool,” to be “tough,” and to be seen as a “bad boy.” You could see that the conviction from God’s Holy Spirit was all over him. But he kept his head down and held on. He couldn’t see Jesus because of his “crowd.”
A lot of people have a “crowd” that keeps them from Jesus. Sometimes that crowd is just one person who is so important to us that we’ll be whoever they want us to be. So they get between us and Jesus. Sometimes that crowd is simply our own pride. We want to run our own lives and do things our way. We wouldn’t mind a Savior to keep us out of hell, but we sure don’t want a Lord who tells us what to do. So we can’t see past our pride. Sometimes that crowd is a hurt we can’t believe God let happen to us, and our pain blocks us from Jesus. Sometimes our anger becomes our crowd. We’re so focused on what someone else has done TO us that we can’t see what Jesus has done FOR us. Crowds have a unique way of showing us just how short in the soul we are.
How about YOU? Do YOU have a clear view of Jesus? Don’t let the crowd keep you from all that Jesus has for you. My friend’s life could have been forever changed if he had opened up his heart that night so many years ago. And yours can be changed TODAY if you will open up yours. Jesus is passing by today. Will YOU see Him? Don’t let some crowd keep you from the goodness of God! That’s God’s Word for you today.