Potential

I had a real Lightbulb moment this evening as I discussed how Jesus viewed his disciples, with some friends.

You have to be honest and say that Jesus’ disciples were pretty hopeless some of the time but Jesus didn’t treat them as hopeless.

Jesus treated his disciples as people who had great potential.

When the disciples asked Jesus to send the crowd away because they were in a remote location and there wasn’t enough food. Jesus replied, ‘you feed them’. Get that, Jesus knew that his disciples could have had the faith in God that could have resulted in them feeding the crowd of over 5000.

When Jesus predicted that Peter would deny him, his very next comment was ‘but when you have turned back, strengthen your fellow disciples’. Jesus described Peter’s failure that was to come but he refused to allow that failure to define his view of who Peter was.

I believe that there is a person who God made each of us to be and that Jesus’ hope and desire for us is that we would become that person.

Too many of us are defined by failures, hurts and fear and my prayer for all of us is that we would learn to see ourselves as Jesus does. Yes, that will involve us seeing our failures and being aware of things we need to learn and change in but will also involve us seeing more clearly who we are and who we can become.

If we believe that God is at work in us changing and transforming us then we have to believe that he is doing the same in other people’s lives as well. If that is true, then no Christian should ever say that another person will never change. We may know difficult people and we may face difficult situations, but we also believe in the God of hope who wants to bring change and transformation.

If you feel hopeless, or if you face a hopeless situation then I hope that you can share my lightbulb moment as you grasp more about the people who you, and the other people who you know, can become if you give your life to and trust in Jesus.