As You Are

God—You are an inviter. 

You invite us to: be with You, sit with You, walk with You, follow You, talk with You, listen to You, run to You, to take up our cross, etc. 

The invitation is always there. You never force us to accept it—and still—it’s always there and available to us. 

“Come and follow me.” The most beautiful invitation of all time. 

I imagine Jesus walking around—what did his invitation to others look like? 

Did he look at each person and say, “come, follow me.”?

Did he look at each person and simply smile? 

Did he gesture towards each person in a way that said, “Come! This way!”? 

Or did he say nothing at all? Did his presence simply say to others, “I am the way.”? 

I think about Jesus and his teachings. Did he say to everyone, “listen to me!” Or did he simply just begin teaching? 

I imagine that Jesus never fought for the attention of others. 

He simply was. 

I imagine he simply invited those around him to listen, and in that invitation being accepted—others were also drawn in to hear. 

I think of Jesus and his interaction with the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1–11). He didn’t tell her to do anything—He INVITED her to do something. 

“Go and sin no more,” (John 8:11, NLT). 

An invitation to choose a new way of life and being. x

I think of Jesus and the bleeding woman who was healed by touching his cloak (Luke 8:43–48). The way he stopped in the crowd to figure out who touched him. He invited her to be SEEN and KNOWN. 

The woman came forward and shared her WHOLE story…and Jesus listened to all of it. 

In some ways, I imagine that was more healing than the healing of her illness—to be heard. 

I think of Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38–42) and Jesus’ invitation to Martha to BE STILL. 

I’m sure it was hard for Martha to pause in that moment, but how freeing to be told, “I don’t need anything from you, except for you to be still in my presence.”

Jesus’ invitations always led people closer to him. Jesus’ invitations brought freedom, healing, new life. 

There’s so much to unpack on this topic, but I’ll stop there for today. My prayer is this: 

Lord, 

Thank You for being a God who openly invites us to live life with You. Thank You that this invitation is always available to us. Lord, would You help us to see Your invitations throughout today. We want to accept them.

Amen.