God
Helpless, but not hopeless
There are times when life becomes painful, seemingly beyond what you can bear. Circumstances beyond your control insinuate themselves into your life and as your mind is reeling over your inability to fix things and your heart is churning with emotions that threaten to overwhelm, you wonder how you will make it through this.
This is a description of my life today.
I don’t think I have ever felt myself to be in such a helpless position as I am right now. At times I have felt like all I can do it sit and stare at the wall. Incapable of acting, incapable of thinking and often incapable of praying. Sometimes there just aren’t words.
The tendency of my personality is to get lost in my own thoughts, a futile replaying of events, which always leads to despair. I have felt myself drifting that way and I know I cannot go there. I must be able to pray. I must be able to get the ear of God. But how? How can I reach so high when I am so low? So weak? So helpless?
“Though the Lord is on high, yet He regards the lowly” Psalm 138:6
“The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart” Psalm 34:18
“Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy.” Psalm 33:18
What a comfort this is to me! What a source of hope! I may be helpless, but I am not hopeless. My God has not promised to make everything in my life the way I would like it to be, but He has promised that throughout the duration of it, He will be with Me.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
Right now I am utterly and completely weak. But He is always infinitely and eternally strong. This is truth that brings rest to a weary soul.
“But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them from the wicked and save them, because they trust in Him.” Psalm 37:39-40
The pain remains great, but His word brings hope that it will not always be like this.
Woe is me
Several years ago during a time of prayer the Lord revealed an area of sin in my life. This wasn’t one of those outward sins that anyone else could see. It was an issue of the heart that only He could see. Today I can’t even remember exactly what is was, but I do remember that the first reaction I experienced was deep grief at the revelation of it. But within a matter of moments that emotion gave way to absolute horror as I realized that this was something that had been in my heart every time I had gone before the Lord in prayer or worship. Each time I had brought it with me and unknowingly presented it before Him. Him….the Holy God. At that moment I understood the desperation of Isaiah’s cry – Woe is me! I am undone!
My only recourse was to stand before my Lord and my God with a deeper understanding of my own wretchedness and dependence upon His mercy. The initial guilt and shame of the revelation of my sin was replaced by a deep thankfulness for the cleansing blood of Christ.
PRAYER: Who is a God like You who forgives the sins of His people and remembers them no more? Your purifying work in our lives is a sure sign of Your love for us. May we live in continuous remembrance of the greatness of Your mercy towards us.
Resting from our labors
“But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not be works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:4-7
Sometime it is so difficult to grasp the concept of grace. Maybe because we live in a culture where those who work hard are rewarded and where achievement is praised. Maybe it is the stubborn willfulness of the 2 year old that remains in us throughout our lives that continues to cry “I can do it myself!” Maybe it is a deal that seems too good to be true. Infinitely too good.
Religion and works have traditionally gone hand in hand. And in our natural way of thinking, it seems right that it should be so. While I admittedly have a limited knowledge of other religions, I believe I would be correct in saying that Christianity is the only one where works are excluded as having any merit in relation to obtaining righteousness.
Don’t miss this word —– excluded. There is nothing I can ever do to make myself more accepted by God or more righteous in His sight once I have trusted Christ for my salvation. The imputation of Christ’s righteousness to me the moment I believed has been and forever will be my only basis of righteousness. How ridiculous (and even insulting) it is to the Lamb of God when we attempt to add our own puny efforts to the work of the cross.
What perfect, holy blood and what a perfect, holy life was poured out on Calvary. So wonderfully complete was this sacrifice that it suffices for all who call upon His name for the duration of time.
Whiter than snow. A new creation. This is what I am now because of Jesus.
The labor was His. The benefit is mine. So I will rest in His labors and rest from mine.
Our Great Reward
Oh diligent seeker
Do not grow weary
Perseverance is needed
In this pursuit
Has He not promised
Great reward
To those who seek with all their heart?
It is Him
He is the prize
Our great reward
Daily seek Him
And be watchful
For oftentimes
You will find
He reveals Himself in unexpected ways
Ignore distraction
Flee temptation
That threatens to slow you in the chase
And run after Him
With all your heart
Shedding every weight that hinders along the way
It is no carrot dangling from a stick
An unobtainable enticement
That we run after
But His sure promise
Of knowing Him
That fuels this pursuit
Shout it from the rooftops……or you could talk about it in the Wal-Mart line
Several weeks ago I ran across a link to http://rjperalta.wordpress.com/ and spent some time reading through it. I was thoroughly amazed as this man shared story after story about his experiences while sharing the gospel. It seems that he has ordered his whole life around opportunities to share the gospel. I would encourage you to check it out. But be prepared to be challenged. I was.
I sent a link to this blog to a friend and it was the topic of several conversations. It can sometimes be difficult to find ways to witness to strangers. Most places, such as restaurants and stores and the like, are not conducive to witnessing. People are busy and don’t welcome the intrusion. This is the perception anyway. So my friend and I decided to take a day and do a bit of “eavesdropping evangelism”. We chose a couple of stores where we thought we might find people doing a good bit of browsing or waiting in line. Once we were within earshot we would begin to testify to each other about our own salvation, making sure we were speaking loud enough to be overhead (but not so loud that we were obnoxious). Several times while waiting in checkout lines, people were noticeably listening to us.
Once when we were doing this, an older lady walked by very slowly and finally just stopped to listen. She was a believer also and we talked with her for a while. She was encouraged by what she overhead and we were encouraged by knowing she was encouraged!!
When the day was over, my friend and I were both thoroughly joyful, having spent the majority of the day discussing Jesus. While this method certainly does not replace direct evangelism, what a wonderful way to make the Lord Jesus the center of even shopping trips.
In the parable of the sower, Jesus said that the sower went out to sow. Let us also, as often as we are out, be mindful of every opportunity, in every way, to sow seeds for the kingdom of God.
He is my Delight 