After many foolish choices and decisions, after walking away from my commitment to Jesus Christ, after "doing it my way," I came back to God and promised to follow and obey him if only he would restore some peace in my life. I had become a virtual emotional roller-coaster, and finally I just couldn't handle it any longer.

 

After at last allowing God to take control of my life, I began to spend time each day in his presence, seeking guidance and comfort and strength to make it through that day. It was a period of painful healing and rapid growth as I clung to the Lord like I never had before.

 

I well remember the morning during this time that it began to dawn on me that Jesus could be the Man in my life. I had read Mark 15, and my thoughts were captured by something I had never noticed before. This chapter depicts the mockery of a trial that was given to our Lord, and his death on the Cross. 

 

In verse 40, after Jesus had uttered his last cry, it tells us that "there were also some women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Salome. And when he was in Galilee they used to follow him and minister to him; and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem."

 

I began to understand that many women of that day were devoted to Jesus. They followed him wherever he went: on long dusty journeys, in a day when travel was difficult and women were not accepted as equals; in a day when their decision to follow Jesus must have been viewed as particularly improper and foolish. Yet Mark tells us that many women followed him. They were there at the Cross when most of the disciples had fled; they were there with him in his disgrace and his suffering. 

 

Women were greatly undervalued in the society of that day, and Jesus again and again broke through those wrong cultural practices and reached out to women, validating them and bringing them into his circle of friends, his followers. He empowered them and encouraged them as no one had done before. No wonder they followed him right to the Cross.

 

The eyes of my understanding started to open up that morning as the inner voice of God’s Spirit said to me, "He was the Man in their life, and they were women just like you, no different. He can be the Man in your life, too.” And that morning, God brought back to my mind my list—those characteristics in a man that I had determined would make me happy. 

 

First of all, Jesus loves me more than I could ever love him. In John 15:9 Jesus said, "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you."  It is not possible for our human minds to comprehend the way the Father loved the Son. But try to expand your mind a bit today and grasp this fact: As Jesus was loved by the Father, so he loves you and me. 

 

I haven't found that earthly man, but may I tell you that the love my Lord Jesus has for me is so abundant, so rich, so completely satisfying, that it is beyond description. There's absolutely no doubt about it: He loves me more than I'll ever be able to love him.

 

And the quality of his love is pure. He doesn't love me because he needs me, or because he likes my looks, or because I fit his requirements. He doesn't love me because I love him, nor does he love me because I'm easy to love. He knows the worst about me, and he loves me still. He doesn't give or take away his love based on how I perform. He cannot love me more and he will not love me less.

 

I've found him: the Man, and the only Man, who does and will always love me more than I love him. The love that Jesus has for me makes a difference in my everyday life. I experience his comfort, and I wrap myself up in the security and warmth of his love. May I introduce you to the Man in my life, Jesus Christ.

 

Let me tell you, Jesus knows me better than anyone else. He understands my personality; my actions don't catch him by surprise. He is not puzzled by anything I say or do. I never leave him shaking his head and saying, "What in the world goes on inside that woman's head?"

 

In fact, he understands me far better than I understand myself. Many times he has revealed to me things about myself which I never could figure out; many times he has put the pieces in place in my own personality puzzle, and helped me to see why I am like I am and why I do what I do.

 

Looking for a man who can understand you? Wish the man you have could just for once see things the way you see them? Weary of trying to communicate your feelings or even of trying to understand them yourself? May I introduce you to Jesus Christ. He'll meet that need to be understood more than you've ever dared dream.

 

With Jesus Ch­rist I have a totally secure relationship. He has promised that he will never leave us or forsake us—never—and he cannot lie. If you lose your beauty or your youth, he won't leave you. If you become ill or handicapped, he won't leave you. There will never be anyone to win his attentions away from you.

 

If you think "happily ever after" only exists in storybooks, you should get to know Jesus Christ. Once you've accepted him as the Man in your life, you can be absolutely certain that it will be forever.

 

Jesus truly is the best friend I have—the friend who cares about all the details, who rejoices when something good happens to me, who cries with me when I'm sad. He's a wonderful friend.

 

 

As I wallowed in this pity, I remembered the tears I had shed that day over the situation. I could feel them trickling down my cheeks again. And while I was thinking that nobody really cared about my tears, I remembered that verse in Psalm 56:8 which says, "Thou has taken account of my wanderings; put my tears in Thy bottle; are they not in Thy book?" And I realized that those silly insignificant tears I had shed were in his bottle. He was fully aware of them; he understood them. They were important to him—so important that he put them in his bottle. 

 

I came out of my self-pity rather quickly as I acknowledged that I had the best friend in all the world to share my problems, big and small, one who never gets tired of hearing all my nitty-gritty details, one who never is too busy or preoccupied to listen to my requests and give me help. He happens to be the Creator of all the Universe, the King of kings and Lord of lords. But may I introduce you to my best friend, the Man in my life, Jesus Christ.

 

And Jesus is the ultimate Gentle-Man. The only personality description he ever gave of himself was that he was "gentle and lowly in heart." We know that he endured everything we will ever have to endure on this earth. Every possible kind of temptation that we will ever face he encountered, though he never sinned. And because he has walked this road before us, we are told that he is "touched with the feelings of our infirmities," he sympathizes with our weaknesses.

 

When he deals with me, he uses such incredible gentleness that I can handle whatever he says. At just the right moment, he quietly drops a thought or suggestion into my mind, or a rebuke, to show me where I need to improve, what needs changing in my life. And because of his marvelous gentleness, I don't resent his dealings with me, and I really want to change whatever it is that displeases him. Gentle –oh my, yes! Only he could be so gentle.

 

But never weak. He attacked the evil institutions of his day without mincing a word. He addressed the religious hypocrites with an unequaled directness. He never lacked backbone or decisiveness.

 

But where there was the slightest tendency on anyone's part to know him, he dealt with compassion and kindness and gentleness. Remember the woman caught in adultery. Quietly, gently he spoke with her, had compassion on her, and yet he directly confronted her sin, but without condemnation, without guilt trips. He deals with directness and love and gentleness.

 

This Man, Christ Jesus, is the perfect combination of gentleness and strength. If you thought it was impossible to find, I'd like you to meet him. You won't be disappointed.

 

And lastly, I have discovered that, as the Psalmist says, Jesus is fairer than the sons of men. He said himself that he is the bright morning star. He is described as altogether lovely, the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley. I can tell you that his beauty is unsurpassed. Though I've not yet seen his face, I do see his marvelous inner beauty, and he is truly fairer than any earthly man could be, as nice as they are. Someday I will see his face, and I know that he will be more beautiful than my dreams and imagination have ever seen him to be.

 

May I therefore introduce you to the Man in My Life, Jesus Christ. If you've never really known him personally, I would urge you to get to know him. For, though he is the Man in my life, he's totally capable of being the Man in your life, too.

 

Whether you're married or single, whether you have a man in your life or not, you will soon learn if you haven't already that no other person on earth can completely meet your needs. We women tend to think that when we find and marry the right man, our search for satisfaction and completeness will end. But regardless of how wonderful that earthly man is, he will not be able to completely meet all your needs and expectations—to fill that Jesus-shaped void inside of you. Only Jesus can do that. 

 

But you must make the decision as to what you will do with this introduction. This is the most important decision you will ever make! What, then, will you do with Jesus, who is called the Christ?