Ben had been praying for his new friend, Adam. When he first met him, Adam had that distant, dead look in his eyes that told everybody to keep away, that he was dangerous. Or maybe not really there. Ben laughed to himself. He knew the look. He had it too, before.

Ben was a Senior and led a small group of guys at his school who were waking up to the reality of God and his kingdom. His situation was different than Adam’s, of course. His dad was at home and his mom didn’t have to work. He grew up with everything…never really needed anything. But he remembered how empty he felt, bored, everything seemed meaningless. Then Jesus showed up to him. He discovered that his life really did have a purpose. God didn’t make him just to take up space, but to serve. He loved the feeling of helping other people, of not seeking to get all the time but discovering the joy of giving. He especially liked helping others wake up to how real the Lord is.

Ben looked forward with real excitement to meeting with Adam after school. He knew when he got that text in the middle of the night that the Lord was really beginning to move in Adam’s life.

Ben gathered the guys in his group together at lunch.

“He said God talked to him?” Tom asked

“That’s what he texted.” Ben answered.

“God never talks to me.” Tom replied in a questioning tone.

“Tom, God talks to you all the time.” Pete said. “You’re just never paying attention.”

“I am too!”

“You spend more time on your phone than anybody I know! Are you looking for a text from the Almighty?”

The other guys were grinning at the exchange. They knew the character of all the players well.

“Pete, calm down. Let’s dial in here. I really want you to be praying for Adam this afternoon. The Lord’s really reaching out to him, and I think he’s ready.”

“I hope so,” Schuyler interjected. “He sure doesn’t talk much when we get together.”

“That’s called thinking.” Pete said with a grin on his face. “You ought to try it sometime.”

“Pete! I’m serious here. Will you promise to pray for Adam?”

“Of course. Let us know how it goes.”

When Ben saw Adam, he smiled with excitement. Adam definitely looked different from the last time they were together at the group. He had had his usual closed in, guarded demeanor. He was hard to read because he seemed to be so passive. Ben could tell there was always a lot going on inside. He just never knew what because Adam kept things pretty much to himself. He was always pleasant, never a pain. His conversations were typically about safe, day-to-day stuff, the “How’s the weather” type of patter of those who were still checking out the scene.

Today Adam seemed to glow. Ben was picking up his energy as he sat down at the table. He had a big grin on his face. Well that’s new, Ben thought.

“Tell me about last night. That was a pretty amazing text.”

“I know, right? Jesus talked to me. For real!”

“He’ll do that. Fill me in. What happened.”

Adam related how he went to bed thinking about Jesus and his death, the brutality of it all. How he was trying to figure why Jesus would allow that to happen to him. Adam shared that he was focused on that Bible verse that said, “Jesus loved me, and gave himself for me.”

“I was just really dialed into that. It was like it was a meme. It just stuck in my head and I was thinking about it over and over, you know what I mean?”

“I do. It’s called ‘meditating on God’s Word.’”

“Yeah, I was doing that, and then suddenly, it was kind of like he was breaking in, except it seemed normal, like it was supposed to happen, although it had never happened before. He said my name, ‘Adam,’ and then he said, ‘I love you.’ He didn’t introduce himself or anything. But I knew who it was. Like he had always been there and was just waiting for me to pay attention. Is that normal for you guys?”

“It ought to be.”

“Man, I never felt so–it’s hard to describe. I never felt so accepted, or welcomed, or satisfied, or…”

“Loved?”

Adam laughed and nodded his head, “Yeah. That’s it.”

“You know the Lord is reaching out to you.”

Ben could tell Adam was really listening. It was as if he didn’t want to miss a word.
“It’s like he’s knocking on the door of your heart. He wants to be a regular part of your life, to be with you all the time.”

Adam was nodding his head up and down.

“There’s a verse in the Bible that goes,

‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.’ (Rev. 3:20)

That’s what’s going on. Jesus wants you to open the door of your life and invite him in. He wants to live with you forever, and I mean forever. Including after death. That’s what heaven is about. It’s not really like we go to heaven when we die, it’s more like Jesus brings heaven with him when he enters your life, and he never leaves, even after we die.”

Ben studied Adam’s face. He wasn’t grinning any more. He was focused. Real serious. He knew Adam was thinking hard, deeply. He looked like the Adam he knew from group. He was deep inside himself, putting it all together. Ben stopped talking. He gave Adam the space he needed to think it through.

“What does that mean? How do I ‘open up my life?’”

That’s a good question, Ben thought.

“There’s another Bible verse,

‘…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’ (Romans 10:9)

“‘Being saved’ means no longer living your life all by yourself, but inviting Jesus to be there with you to help you out. It all happens when you really realize you need him, that you’ve kind of been stumbling around in the dark…”

Adam nodded. “Stumbling around in the dark…” Yeah. That feels like what he’s been doing.

“…without him. He wants to be the Lord of your life.”

“What does that mean?”

It means he wants to be in charge…that he really needs to be in charge. Without him, we really can screw things up, hurt people, hurt ourselves.

Adam was laser focused. He’s really been hurting his mom.

“That means I don’t do what I want to do anymore, but what he wants me to do?”

“Well, yes. But how it works is, over time, he really begins to change what we want. We begin to realize that what we want begins to shift. And things begin to turn out better. That’s why he wants to be lord over your life.”

Adam nodded slowly.

“A’right. I think I get it.”

“Are you ready to turn your life over to Jesus?”

Adam felt nervous. Hesitant. Something inside him was telling him not to do it. That he would lose his freedom to do what he wanted, that he wouldn’t be able to do what he needed to do to get what he wanted.

“I don’t know. Can I think about it?”

“Absolutely. It’s a battle. I’m sure you’ll win it. I’ll be praying for you.”

A battle? What kind of battle is that?