Banqueting with Jesus…
God loves us more than we can imagine. He is always extending an invitation to us to be with Him. He wants us to join him in fulfilling his purposes around this world. He wants us to give of ourselves and reach out to others. He wants us to lay our life down and follow Him at all costs.
Today I was reading Luke 14 about the parable of the Great Banquet. A man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests to attend. He sent his servant out to tell those who had been invited at the time of the banquet, and every single one he invited made some kind of excuse as to why they couldn’t come. One said “I have to go see the field I just bought, so please excuse me.” Another replied “I just got married, so I can’t come.” Every one who received the invite refused because of other things they were doing they considered more important. The man then told the servant “just go out and invite everyone…the poor in the streets and alleys, the lame, the crippled, and the blind.” They all came and there was still room, so they went to the fields and country and invited those people, too. His house was now full, and the banquet was served. The man then said to his servant “Not one of those men who were invited will get even a taste of my banquet.”
This really made me contemplate many things in my life today. This is a parable referring to Jesus inviting us to His banquet table to partake of a feast with Him. It’s kind of eye-opening to me because the last thing I want is Jesus to invite me to be a part of Him and his plans and me say, “no thanks, God, I have too much going on in my life right now to come be with you.” This banquet represents our relationship with the Almighty. What an amazing privilege it is to be invited to HIS table…the one who gave his life for me. What a devastation it is to ever have anything more important than our relationship with Him and miss out. He’s simply asking us to dine with him. To share in an amazing feast that we don’t even have to prepare! He wants our company and our presence with Him. He loves us so much to prepare this feast for us, and for us to have any excuse is absolutely crazy. The creator is inviting us to an eternal, amazingly fulfilling relationship with Him and we so often turn him down.
This can also be applied to our everyday life as well. How many times has God said “come be with me” and we say, “sorry, God, I have a test to study for,” or “I have my job to do” or even “I really want to watch this tv show tonight, God, so you’ll have to wait.” So often we think, “God will get over it…he’s big enough He’ll be there tomorrow when I have extra time.” Those are all true things, but the Lord knows our hearts. What an amazing invitation we’ve received to be in an intimate relationship with our creator, father, and best friend. How many times has He come to you and whispered to you “go bless that person…they really need a friend right now.” How have you responded? “Well, God, they might reject me or think I’m weird…”or “I really don’t have time to do that right now…I’m on my way home and I’m really tired!”
All I know is when the father invites me to HIS banquet, I don’t want to reject that invitation for ANY reason. He even says in the end that those who he invited who turned him down will never get to taste of his banquet. My question to you is this..What in this world could possibly be better than what God has to offer? What could be better than free, amazing, food and the best fellowship ever?
Let’s choose today to partake of the banquet…even if the invitation comes at a time that we don’t think fits our schedule. After all, God is the one directing our steps, so let’s follow Him!…
