Ephesians 2:17
“He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.”
Jesus wants to rescue us all. We all have different degrees of problems, but in one sense we are all a mess. Jesus points this out in the Sermon on the Mount. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven", (Matthew 5:3). We are blessed if we see our needy state and cry out to God for help.
It's easy to be ignorant of our need. This was Jesus' problem with the pharisees. He says to them in John 9:41, '“If you were blind,” Jesus replied, “you would not be guilty of sin. But since you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”' These were the elites of their day. Akin to our Harvard graduates, but they were the most unaware.
They were so ignorant that they had an attitude. They were judgmental towards those that were in the same situation. That's why Jesus opposed them so. We can be in the same situation. God have mercy on us.
These issues can spiritual, emotional, relational and so on. They will never be completely repaired. As long as we are alive here on earth we will continue to have things to work on.
Fortunately for us, God wants to help us. We may feel embarased to bring these to Him. It helps to realize He already knows. In fact He knows every aspect of our issues and how to resolve them. As we see the marvels of creation, we realize He is more than competent to help.
Thus begins the life we were meant to live. When God created our first parents life was meant to joyfully live and work with one's spouse and to be connected in relationship with God. When we accept Christ, that relationship is restored. Heaven rejoices when any one turns to God (Luke 15:10).
As we are born again our restoration begins. The Lord begins to make us like Him, which is reliable, kind and loving. It's a joint effort, He changes our hearts so we want to love Him and others and we do our best to love. We will have challenging people. He will help us. We will get frustrated and cry out for help. He answers and we get more and more loving.
He fulfills today's verse. He preached peace to those of us who were far. He went to some dark places to rescue us. Now here we are following Him and having the time of our lives. Thank You, Lord.