WORKS

WORKS

John 14:12-13

He that believes in Me ... greater works than these shall he do

I’ve had the wrong impression pretty much all my life.  I have always felt that if I wasn’t doing what I thought was enough in terms of Kingdom work, then I was a failure.  Because everything in life has a season, there are times when God wants you to rest.  Times when busyness must take a backseat to recovery.  Times to blank out all the voices in life and just focus on God.  Whenever these times would come my way, I always would begin to question if God was through with me.  If He would ever call me back into the game, or would I forever be sidelined? 

Then it dawned on me.

God doesn’t want me for what I can do for Him.

Yes, He wants to use me for His kingdom.

But He doesn’t need me.

I need Him.

I’m reminded of a gathering that Jesus showed up to one day.  Two women were involved in hosting the party - Mary and Martha.  Martha took the opportunity to serve and immersed herself in the work.  So much so that when Mary didn’t match her effort she got mad!  Never mind that Mary took the opportunity to give her all in worship; there are dishes to be cleaned!!!  So many times we get caught up in the necessary that we forget the need.

I need Him.

God, help me never to replace my need for You with service to You.  Help me to take advantage of the empty times and rest in You.  There is coming a day when I’ll be called back into the battlefield, and if I’ve wasted the resting times worrying about the necessary I won’t have the strength that You’ve wanted to give me.

I need Him!

Liberty for the Bruised

In the beginning of Jesus' ministry, He went to the synagogue on a certain Sabbath.  While there, He read a passage out of Isaiah ... I've copied the text from the KJV because one phrase has stood out to me for some time:

Luke 4:18 

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 

Several years ago I manned 2nd base in a church softball tournament.  This particular day was steamy (100+ temps), with little or no wind.  The other team's hotshot came up to bat, and as you can probably predict, he promptly peppered a ground ball my way.  One wrongly predicted bounce later and the ball hit my shin.  Ouch!  If it matters, I did throw the guy out at first, but that has no relevance to this post :)

After a few days, the pain began to go away but I was left with a knot at the point of impact and a juicy black, green, purple, and blue bruise from the knee to the ankle.  While getting ready for church the next weekend, God reminded me of this phrase "to set at liberty them that are bruised".  Several things began to flow into my spirit:

- A bruise is today's reminder of yesterday's injury.

- Even though the pain may be gone, the affected area is still tender and easily hurt again.

- I kept thinking "Don't touch me there, it will hurt more."

- I had been going to extraordinary lengths to protect that hurt.

- In reality, I had become a slave to that hurt.

I love it when the Scripture comes to life in new and fresh ways!  How many times in your life has someone or some situation hurt you?  Maybe you messed up, maybe it was through no fault of your own, but the hurt is still real.  Jesus took time to read a prophecy about Himself to remind us that He came to set us free from past hurts and failures.  It doesn't matter to Him what happened or who caused it, He is interested in healing and delivering us!

A lot of times we will carry our hurts with us for months or even years.  Whether it came from family, church, or work associates, this hurt will affect our lives in drastic ways.  Relationships that were once valued can be dissolved in a short period of time.  Church involvement can be affected; sometimes we even lose the desire to be a part of church.  All in an effort to protect that hurt area, not allowing anyone to touch or discuss it.  It simply hurts too much!

Carry the hurt long enough, and we eventually become a slave to that hurt.  The ironic thing is that all along Jesus has walked right beside you, especially in the times you didn't know He was there.  All along He has desired to heal the hurt and set you free from the burden it has become!

One thing I have learned about God's healing process:  when He heals, He allows your true colors to shine.  My physical bruise only turned colors when the inside had begun to heal.  It takes a generous amount of courage to put yourself out there after being hurt, but God gives uncommon strength when you are willing to do what He has asked you to do.

My prayer for you today is that you simply take that step in asking God to heal you of past hurts.  As the process gets going, don't be afraid to step into God's providence and provision for your life - He's got your back!

Thanks for checking out my new blog.  Hopefully you will find the periodic peeks into our lives interesting and compelling conversation.  Renee' and I have 5 kids, so there is plenty to write about on that alone, not to mention working for God and the other stuff we have going on on a daily basis!  Feel free to comment and/or link to this page at any time.

Jarrett Humphries