Daily Thought for Saturday, 12th April 2025
“Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus.”
Luke 22: 3-4, NIV
We matter that much
Graeme Glover
Tim Keller once told the story of a mum and her daughter. The mum did everything to help her child. Mum had her main job, plus the cleaning job as well as the online work after her daughter’s bedtime. Mum spent hours helping her daughter with her homework. She also taught her child the importance of being kind to others. The daughter made it to university, and then went on to a successful career. After leaving home, the daughter had virtually no contact with her mum. She hadn’t fallen out with her mum and she still sent a card at Christmas. However, the daughter did not give her mum the relationship that she deserved, despite the fact that her mum gave her everything. Whenever the daughter was challenged about why she did not honour her mum, she would say that it didn’t really matter because what was most important was that she tries to be kind to other people.
How many people do you know who say that it is not important to go to church or to have a relationship with God, as the important thing is to try and treat others well? How many of truly honour God, recognising that we owe him everything? How many of us have the relationship with God that our Creator deserves?
Judas’s betrayal is about more than it leading to Jesus being arrested. It is about more than the money Judas received. Judas’s betrayal left Jesus so painfully distraught (John 13: 21) because Judas was turning his back on the relationship that Jesus so deeply desired to have with him.
Our own sins leave Jesus so distraught, not because we have broken a rule, but because we have broken his heart. It is so important for Jesus to have a relationship with each and every one of us, that it hurts him beyond our imagination each time we do something to distance ourselves from him.
The good news that comes from the story of Judas – and there is good news – is that there is nothing we can do that is so bad that it will ever stop Jesus trying to reach out to us. We matter that much.
Shall we pray?:
Lord God, in our prayer today we come back to you. We renew again our commitment to offer our lives to you, and to live in relationship with you both now and for ever more. Amen.
Thinking it through:
What can you do to give God the relationship that he so deeply desires for you?
God is willing to forgive every sin that gets in the way of our relationship with him. Is there anything you need to ask forgiveness for today? Trust in the utter goodness and forgiveness of God as you confess.
Graeme Glover is minister of Galashiels.