"There is a living God .... He means what He says and will do all He has promised." -- James Hudson Taylor (Founder of Overseas Mission Fellowship www.omf.org)
Devotional Readings - John 5:1-9, 2Peter 1:1-4 (message)
Imagine for a moment you are the lame man trying so desperately hard to reach the healing waters of the pool. For the past thirty eight years you have tried to reach the ever so near promise of healing, but have come up short. It seems every one else passes you by. No one tries to help you help yourself. What an enormous feeling of discouragement he must have felt. Time after time, year after year, he keeps coming back and time after time he encounters failure. My thought when I read this passage is Why? For what purpose, beyond the obvious desire to get well, does he keep coming back -- only to fail? Why not just camp out at the edge of the pool waiting to stick his finger or toe in? Or just plain give up. I mean -- the very definition of insanity is repeating the same action again and again expecting different results.
Is the guy crazy for doing what he repeatedly fails at? Or is there another angle to this story that we should take some time to consider. That angle is the angle Jesus is taking as He carefully looks at this man from a distance. What is Jesus meditating on as He considers the scene before him? Perhaps He is wondering if the lame man really wants to get better. Perhaps he is also considering the actions of those who keep moving beyond the lame man without the slightest offer of assistance? What lesson does He want the lame man to learn. What does he know about the lame mans heart that He can use to teach others of God?
He strides up to him and the next thing we see is the miraculous -- He speaks of healing and the lame man walks home.
Now imagine how you would feel if Jesus walked up to you and said, "I am sending you on a mission to live a godly life and to represent Me to your world? This won't be an easy mission, but I will give you everything you need to succeed. I will be there with you the whole time, but you won't be able to see Me. Never the less, will walk with you everywhere you go, and whenever you need anything for this mission - anything at all - I will give it to you. It is My promise to you."
Would you accept this mission? It is not a hypothetical question. You have already been chosen for this mission, and, if you are reading this, you have already probably accepted it and this devotion has served as an affirmation of a plan God has set into motion for your life. You have probably been searching for some sort of affirmation or promise from God that, if you followed through with what's been placed before you, His Presence will go with you (Isaiah 43:1-7; 55:10-13).
The promises of God Himself - very great and precious promises, we are assured that no matter what we run into, that no matter what we encounter after we take the first step - God WILL be there for us. Everything you need for life and godliness after the journey begins is available to you. The only catch -- And there always seems to be one of those things nearby too -- You have to know the promises, and you have to ask Him in faith to experience them to their fullest. Other than that, there are no other overriding restrictions.
Do you believe that? Do you realize that everything for life and godliness has been promised to you? Do you understand that every time we say we could not help ourselves, that we did not have the necessary resources or capabilities for the mission, or we always chose like the people who passed by the lame man, to keep walking on by for our own selfish reasons refusing to offer assistance, that we are deceiving ourselves and contradicting the conditions of His promises? The great and precious promises which are rock solid guarantees says that everything we need is already waiting for us? Pray on that for a while.
God's great and precious promises are like a forgotten storehouse containing priceless treasures waiting to be discovered over and over again. The treasures within it are mind boggling. The ignorance about them is likewise just as mind boggling too. There is a gap between the fact of the promises and our willingness to believe them. The promises are everywhere - and God invites you to count on them completely.
God Bless
No comments:
Post a Comment