We are coming up on Easter next Sunday and what a great week it is to read and know the story of Jesus. This week leading up to Easter is called Holy week and so I thought it would be good to talk about invitations and how being invited to something helps us to feel seen.
John 3:16-17 - “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
Being invited to something makes us feel good. I’m sure we have all experienced times where we heard or now because of social media can see that something happened, and we weren’t invited. It probably made you feel a certain way.
But that invitation that we do get makes us feel seen and enough and a part of something and when we don’t get it, we can feel the opposite of all that. Sometimes we just want the invite despite the fact if we go or not.
Well Jesus sees us and is inviting us to follow Him. He wants us to be there with him.
Ephesians 1:4-5 - Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
God knew us before we were born and therefore you have been chosen and invited to come to Him.
An invitation to rest is something we can all be thankful for. You can get a massage as a gift. You go out into nature, and you just spend time in the quiet and beauty of it all. In whatever way you like to rest, it’s a time we would all jump an invitation for.
Jesus demonstrates to us about rest and how important it is for us to take the opportunity when it comes us. He invites us to even come and follow Him and find rest and restoration of our heart.
Matthew 11:28-30 - Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Being invited to rest or to a restful environment is priceless and will absolutely take the opportunity. God offers it at any point and invites us to give Him our burdens.
I am here to say I’ll take that, here Lord have my burdens.
There have been a few times that I’ve gotten an invite to something and felt like wow I wasn’t expecting to get that invite. I think that for a few reasons, I knew nothing about it until the invitation, or if I did know something was happening, I didn’t think I would be invited because, why would they want me there?
We can also think this about coming to faith and following Jesus. We can think why would He want me there?
In Luke 19:10 - For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.
God sent the biggest and best invitation to everyone. He sent His son as the invitation. He basically says, look I’m sending my son to save you and in return you have the choice to accept the invitation and if you do you can be with me in heaven. That is the greatest invite ever.
Sign me up!