The following post was one of Jay's earlier, and more foundational posts after first starting this blog in 2011. An 'oldie but goodie,' and definitely worth revisiting ... again. :)
 “Getting it right” has to do with getting Himright.
What I hope to do here is to take a step back to a question that was asked of me about 10 years ago now. Here it is in context:
I had just arrived late for a leaders gathering in Charlotte, NC. I couldn’t help but note a rather common look on the faces of those already present. It was sort of a pleasant look, like a group of cats who had just shared a canary.
Before I could take my seat, the presiding leader asked, “Jay, what does the Church in this city look like?” I hesitated a second or two and then responded, “It looks like the sum total of all of those who belong to Christ in this city, who know who are theirs in Him. Everything else is show business.”
I share this by way of further introduction to what I would like to blog about here. The kind of intimacy that we are looking for is not likely to be found until we accept Jesus as Lord of relationship. We need to know and receive one another as from Him. What God calls church is not about “let’s make a deal” on a human level.
In a subsequent leaders meeting, but still back in that same time frame, I shared that, “There are places in all of us where we have never been. We can’t get there alone because, if we did, it wouldn’t be the same place as it would be if somebody was there with us. The problem is that there is so much garbage between here and there, that we are afraid to go there, either alone or with someone else. We need to have a place to put the garbage. That is a place that only Christ can provide, and has provided. "Behold, The Lamb of God who takes away the ‘garbage’ of the world." He is not only our garbage man, but He wants to make garbage men out of us for the sake of those He has given us to love. We don’t have to take away the garbage of the whole world, but we are called to, and can, take away the garbage of those He has given us to love in Him.
Having said that, which I know sounds very nice in theory, I must quickly add that in my experience it only happens in the intimacy that is possible when He is Lord of relationship. Unless we discover who we are in Him, and in relationship to others in Him, we dare not get that close.
Jesus wants to give you, and has, in fact, promised to give you significant others in Him. Keep your eyes open, because you never know when He is going to give you the gift of another person. Opening the package can easily take a life time. Oh yes, the package can only be opened in the presence of God’s kind of love, the kind He demonstrated on the day He said, “I love you,” when He and His expectations were nailed to the tree. We need this revelation if we are ever going to love like God.
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Steve’s Devotional - Being Helpless
Do you ever feel helpless? I can identify with the fifty-year-old pastor who said, “When I was young I prayed that God would allow me to win the world for Christ. When I was thirty I prayed, ‘Oh, God, may I win my city.’ When I was forty I prayed, ‘Lord, let me win the people in my church.’ And now I pray, ‘Lord, help me not to lose too many.’”
When you’re young, there’s no problem that can’t be solved, no mountain that can’t be climbed, and no challenge that is too big to accept. But as you get older (and some folks get older sooner), you begin to realize that some problems exist that just don’t have solutions.
Do you remember what Matthew said about Jesus’ visit to Nazareth? “He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith” (Matthew 13:58). Even Jesus hit some stonewalls now and then.
I Sometimes Feel Helpless.
I worry about the economy and want to help out, but I don’t even understand what the GNP is, much less what to do to make it better. I worry about what those turkeys are doing in Washington, about mass starvation in parts of the world, and about the homeless. But I feel so helpless.
Do you remember the incident in Matthew 14:13-21? It records the time when Jesus fed the five thousand in spite of the helplessness of the disciples. Jesus was in a desert place with over five thousand people, and those folks were hungry. Then Jesus told his disciples to feed them. In the entire crowd they found only five loaves of bread and two fish. Talk about helpless! There wasn’t a Burger King down the street and no bakery where they could hustle up a couple thousand loaves of bread to make sandwiches or something. The text doesn’t say it, but the disciples are friends of mine, and I know what they said: “You’ve got to be kidding! We can’t possibly feed five thousand people with this little food.”
Then, in the face of their helplessness, Jesus did what they couldn’t do: he fed the crowd, every last hungry person. “They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children” (verses 20-21).
A friend once told me about a large wood-frame hotel here in Florida (he said that it was the largest in the world). The hotel was made out of Florida pine, and just one match in the wrong place would create the largest pile of Florida pine ashes in the world. So the engineers designed and installed a very expensive and elaborate sprinkler system to protect the place. Much later they added to the hotel and found out that the sprinkler system had never been hooked up. So as great as it was, it would never have helped avert a disaster because it had never been connected to a water source.
Connecting The System To The Source. That’s How The Christian Deals With Helplessness.
Where do you feel helpless? Remember those places in which you felt helpless in the past and God intervened just as Jesus had in feeding the five thousand. We really can trust God who is never helpless or without resource.
The American folk religion says that God helps those who help themselves. I suppose there is some truth to that. But what do you do when you can’t do anything? How do you help yourself when you have no strength left? Where do you turn when you simply don’t have the resources to meet the needs you have? The Bible says that God helps those who can’t help themselves and know it.
We all feel helpless at times, and for good reason—we are helpless. (Did you hear about the psychiatrist who was counseling the man who had an inferiority complex? He said to the man, “Sir, the reason you have an inferiority complex is because you are inferior.”) There are so many problems and needs in our lives for which we have no remedy, so many mountains that are too big to climb, so many challenges that we can’t meet. A feeling of helplessness is the rational response to reality.
But we aren’t totally helpless, are we? There really is a God. He is sovereign over every circumstance. He gave us his Son as a propitiation for our sin. He has forgiven us and accepted us. He loves us. He wants what is best for us. We can trust him. All we have to do is make sure that the sprinkler system is connected.
One time Spurgeon was worried about his ministry in London and the resources he needed to maintain it. He was depressed and filled with anxiety. Then God brought to his mind a rather silly image. It was the image of a mouse in the granaries of Egypt under Joseph. The mouse was worried about having enough to eat. Then Spurgeon thought about a fish in the Thames River and how worried the fish could get about having enough water to breathe.
Then Spurgeon began to laugh: “Eat away little mouse,” he said, “there is plenty. Swim away, little fish, there is more than enough water.” And then, addressing himself, he said, “Stop worrying, little man. God has enough and more!”
Time To Draw Away
Read Psalm 121 & Hebrews 13:6
Feeling helpless about anything? Check your connection to the source of Living Water, God himself. Let him provide the resources. He can truly be trusted and has more than enough to meet you at the point of your need.
