During my teens especially, I struggled for a while to connect with Jesus. I resonated strongly with God the Father, because I saw Him as Someone Who was very strong and mighty and Who cared deeply about me (and all of this is true). One of my closest human relationships was not what it had been before, and besides this, I was struggling with personal issues. I felt a tremendous need for someone who was strong, decisive and stable. I saw that God the Father was strong, decisive and stable.
However, I did not fully understand who Jesus is. I knew that He was tender and affectionate, and sadly, at that time in my life I was becoming somewhat afraid of and distant from tenderness and affection. I also did not understand that in addition to being tender and affectionate, Jesus is also strong, decisive and stable.
I am so grateful because over the course of a few years, God began to heal the wounds in my heart and to restore the springs of natural affection that had been somewhat, although not entirely, dormant for some time. I now see that tenderness and affection are beautiful, and even though relationships can become difficult, distant and even painful, and even though hearts can become broken, God can heal. I have seen God doing a healing work in my closest human relationships and I am so grateful. Even though love can unfortunately involve pain at times, it is worth it.
(Note: Love isn’t all affection. If you are in an abusive situation, I would like to gently and urgently encourage you to do the loving thing, which is to reach out for help. Here is a resource for people in abusive situations and also for abusive people who want to change. https://www.thehotline.org/)
Even though God has done much for me to show me how beautiful tenderness and affection is, I am still turned off by tenderness and affection alone. This world is a bad place. There is deep brokenness within our own hearts as well as in the hearts of those around us. There are evils within our own hearts as well as in the hearts of those around us. Tenderness and affection alone simply cannot solve all of the problems within the human heart. We need the help of Someone who, in addition to being tender and affectionate, is also strong, decisive and stable.
I have come to realize that, contrary to what I once sensed, in addition to being tender and affectionate, Jesus is also strong, decisive and stable. Furthermore, Jesus said that whoever has seen Him has seen the Father (John 14:9). In other words, since Jesus is tender, affectionate, strong, decisive and stable, we can know that God the Father is also tender, affectionate, strong, decisive and stable.
Recently, I read a Messianic prophecy about Jesus (Who is the Messiah. Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament foretold what Jesus would do when He came to earth.) What I saw about the character of Jesus in this chapter touched my heart deeply. In Isaiah 42:3 (NKJV), it says;
“A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth.”
Wow. In this verse we see both Jesus’ sensitivity (“A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench”), and His decisiveness, strength and sense of justice (“He will bring forth justice for truth.”). Wow. What a balanced and beautiful character!
In Isaiah 42:4, we can see Jesus’ courageous, faithful and just attributes of character, and in verse 7, we once again see Jesus’ tenderness (Jesus healed broken people and brought deliverance to broken lives while He was on earth). Jesus does indeed have both the tender and the stern attributes of character.
I will now share some examples from the Gospels that demonstrate Jesus revealing His softer and/or sterner character traits.
Softer character traits:
- Jesus found joy in making a couple’s wedding celebration better (John 2:1-11).
- Jesus loved children (Mark 10:13-16).
- Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, and preached the gospel (Matthew 11:2-5).
- Jesus mourned over Jerusalem because the people there had by and large rejected Him even though He had done all that He could to win their hearts and save them (Matthew 23:37).
Sterner character traits:
1. Jesus ordered irreverent people out of the temple because their behavior was completely out of place for God’s house (Matthew 21:12-13).
2. Towards the end of His time on earth, Jesus strongly rebuked corrupt religious leaders (Matthew 23:13-31).
I will now share a beautiful story that illustrates both Jesus’ love for sinners and His hatred of sin. This story is found in John 8:1-11.
Corrupt religious leaders brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught in the act of adultery. They told Him what the woman was guilty of and reminded Him that, according to the law of Moses, the woman was to be stoned. They then asked Jesus what He thought should be done. Jesus simply stooped down and begin writing down the sins of the corrupt religious leaders in the sand. Then He stood up and said that whomever among the religious leaders was without sin should throw the first stone.The religious leaders were so embarrassed that they left one by one: starting with the oldest and ending with the youngest.
Now Jesus and the woman were left alone. Jesus asked the woman where her accusers were and whether anyone had condemned her. The woman responded that no one had condemned her. Then Jesus lovingly told the woman that He had not condemned her either, and this was not all that He said; He also told her not to sin anymore. What a loving, just and merciful Person Jesus is! I want to be more like Him.
This particular story reminds me of the beautiful verse, Isaiah 42:3 (NKJV), which I shared earlier in this blog-post:
“A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth.”
What a a balanced and beautiful character Jesus has! We can be sure that He still has the same character because “Jesus Christ ” is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever” Hebrews 13:8 (KJV).
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I hope that you will continue on this journey of getting to know Jesus with me. The best thing that anyone can do is to get to know Jesus and to accept Him as his or her personal Savior and Lord. If you have not done this already and would like to, I invite you to do so.
“I invite you to just come to Him as you are, as I have. You may feel scared and ashamed, but Jesus’ arms are open to you. He will not refuse you if you come. He promises not to cast you out if you come (John 6:37). He promises to give you rest if you will come (Matthew 11:28-30). He promises to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
If you don’t know how to pray, that is okay. Here is a sample prayer that you can use, but it is okay and right for you to talk to Jesus as you would respectfully talk to a close friend.
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Dear Jesus,
I want to know You. I know that I am a sinner and I ask Your forgiveness for my sins. Please give me a new heart and help me to be like You. Please help me to know You.
In Jesus Name Amen
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I promise you that Jesus will hear your prayer, and that He will accept you.” (words within these last quotation marks were copied and pasted (and slightly adapted) from Jesus: Who He Is and How to Know Him: Jesus Knew Who He Was.)
Blessings and courage!
The quoted Bible verse, Isaiah 42:3, is from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Photo credit: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/jesus-reaching-out-gm182707450-12497376
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