Today, we focus on the importance of preparing to meet Jesus and I'll help you see how it can be a time of joy and not fear. We explore how our relationship with Him can shape our lives, guiding our dreams and desires. The message emphasizes that this meeting should be our North Star, directing our journey. I also share a personal story that highlights the loving relationship we can cultivate with Jesus, encouraging us to communicate openly with Him about our lives and concerns.

Takeaways:

1. During Lent, we are reminded to prepare ourselves joyfully to meet Jesus, emphasizing the importance of our relationship with Him.
2. The journey of faith is about keeping Jesus as our North Star, guiding our dreams and shaping our desires every day.
3. Our conversations with God are vital; they help us sort out our desires and strengthen our faith.
4. Practicing prayer for both big and small matters shows God that we trust Him with our lives.
5. The anticipation of meeting Jesus should bring us joy, not fear, as we cultivate our relationship with Him.
6. We can deepen our connection to God through prayer, reflecting on our concerns and sharing our lives with Him.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. www.bible805.com

Hi, welcome to the Hobo Soul Podcast of road advice from the Bible and from me, Yvon Prehn someone who's a little further down the road of life. I'll talk to you every weekday for about five to 10 minutes, with periodic longer talks on serious Saturdays. Let's get started with our topic today,

Lenten devotion Day 5 Prepare happily to meet Jesus

During this Lenten season, we're looking at the quotes and challenges from my devotional book and journal In Dying We Are Reborn that you can download for free on www.bible805.com. I'll read you the daily quote and challenge from the book and then share my comments on them.

Here's today's quote--

But be on your guard, on't let the sharp edge of your expectation get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that day is going to take you by complete surprise, spring on you suddenly like a trap.

Today's challenge--

That meeting should be the North Star of our lives. That meeting should inform our dreams, shape our desires, guide our work. Consider how you can keep that North Star in focus as you travel in life.

And here's my commentary on that.

Well, that was a bit heavy. It literally talks about a come to Jesus time and it doesn't sound like something to look forward to.

Hang in there though with me because I want to share a story with you that greatly encouraged me about our future meeting with Jesus, and I think it will be useful and encouraging to you also.

Now, I was raised in a rather strict family, for which I'm grateful in many ways, but that strictness permeated my life and how I treated others even when I was a little kid. Even when I was young. In this instance, I was in sixth grade and I was teaching my little Sunday school class of fourth graders.

I was talking to them about Jesus coming back and how they needed to be good children. In light of that, they didn't seem to be taking it very seriously.

Now my father was in the Army and the church was near the Army base, and I knew that most, if not all the kids had fathers who were also in the Army. So I came up with what I thought was a perfect threat to get them all to behave.

I said, "Think about it this way. You know when your Daddy's on TDY,(that stands for Temporary Duty Assignment, which at our base often meant several weeks away in the desert driving tanks and practicing war games) I continued, "when he comes back and you've been really naughty when he was gone, don't you feel bad?"

I paused for the enormity of the seriousness of this scenario to sink in.

But immediately this one little girl blurts out,"Oh no, I'll just be so happy to see him!"

So much for my fire and brimstone Fear-of-God End-time theology.

That one comment, and honestly, the truth of it, changed everything for me when I think about meeting Jesus.

I've often thought about what she said since then, and I realized, and what particularly applies to our podcast today, is that she was so excited to see her daddy when he returned. Not on the basis of anything she did, but based on the obvious relationship of love they had before he returned.

That's what I'm encouraging you to keep in focus, to keep as your North Star and we all have the same opportunity as we look forward to our reunion with Jesus, we can build a relationship of love with him as we walk as hobo souls, strangers and pilgrims in this world, we can remember who we truly are.

We can listen to him through His Word. We can talk back to him in prayer. Just chatter with God. Tell him how your day's going, what concerns you.

Ask for help on actions large and small. Pete Gregg says that when you're used to praying for all sorts of little things all the time, it strengthens your prayer practice to pray for bigger things. Yet, big or small, they all matter to God because what matters to you matters to Him.

The Apostle Peter reminds us to

"Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares for you."

Sometimes we think God doesn't care about the little things of our lives or doesn't have time for them.

But here are two realities that remind us that he does now.

First of all, He's a big God, and to use a contemporary term, He has unlimited bandwidth.

He keeps all the molecules and all the atoms spinning in all of creation, and he doesn't lose track of a single one. The Bible tells us he has all the hairs on your head numbered. It says he keeps track of the birds and dresses the flowers.

He can handle your worries about what to make for dinner when you chat with him about it, and is there to help when you need to make a decision about what gift to buy for a friend, as well as the big decisions about love, career, ministry, those sorts of things.

Also remember in his unlimited capacity, how unlimited is his love for you.

When we love someone, truly love them, everything about them is important to us. We know what they like to eat, what movies and books they enjoy, what hobbies they wish they had more time for.

As we grow in our relationship, we learn more and more of the details. And if there's an area where they're sad or hurting or need help, we want to help.

I sometimes wonder how God feels when we're struggling with something big or little, and we don't ask for his help, for his insight, for his power to get through it. He loves us. He wants us to share our concerns and ask for his help.

"Call to me and I'll answer." God says in Jeremiah 33:3.

Now sometimes he answers no, if that's the best for us. But sometimes it helps to just get the conversation with him going.

"You don't have because you don't ask." James 4. 2 reminds us.

Now that isn't a guarantee that we'll get everything just because we asked for it. But again, it's an encouragement to get the conversation going with our Lord.

And sometimes we sort out our desires and our dreams just by talking to God.

Sometimes in that those conversations, it's like, oh, maybe I don't really want that, or maybe that's not a good way to go, or yes, Lord, yes, yes, this is what I want to do in my life and my walk with you.

Now, from this continuous conversation, you're building the kind of life and relationship with Jesus so that when it's time for you to meet him face to face, you won't be afraid, but will be so happy to see Him!

In closing for this Lenten devotional, which is a special Hobo Soul series that I'm doing for Len, I'd encourage you to pause take time to share with Jesus your response, thoughts and prayers to what you just heard. You can do this quietly in your heart or you can write it out.

I have a free journal with the quotes, challenges and space for you to write in that you can download at www.bible805.com.

Let me close in prayer for you that as Jesus went into the wilderness to solidify his call calling that you during this time retreat to a place spiritually where God can significantly deepen your relationship with him, where he can speak to you regardless of the temptations and distractions in your life, and that you'll come out of it with a clear sense of his calling for you and a commitment to follow it. Nothing more nothing less, nothing else. Amen.