Maybe your week has been tough! Hey–it’s Wednesday and you are already exhausted.
Many people (maybe you?) are under regular verbal, emotional, and psychological assault. Many are under spiritual attack as well. Over and over, in a thousand different ways, men, women, and children are told they are not valuable as persons. In so many ways, the glory and dignity of these persons has been taken away.
Yet, we can trust God’s ultimate deliverance. We can trust him to be at work and be involved in our situations. Sometimes, we get discouraged. We pray. We believe we know what God’s answer ought to be. The answer must come now in the way we have planned.
Consequently, we pray but then become completely frustrated. We pray for a loved one who has cancer and then she dies. We pray for one of our children to become a Christian and it hasn’t happened. We get confused and exasperated, “Why didn’t God answer my prayer!â€
A family gathered with their friends in the waiting room after surgery. After hearing of the success of the surgery, the father said, “We knew that everything would be all right. We left it in God’s hand.â€
Ok–we can receive a successful surgery as an answered prayer. However, there are others who prayed and their parent/spouse/child died. Leaving it in God’s hands is not a guarantee that what we think ought to happen will actually happen. God will, however, never abandon us as he responds to these prayers.
Bring your helplessness before God.
I like these lines from Ole Hallsby’s Prayer (p. 26),
I never grow weary of emphasizing our helplessness, for it is the decisive factor not only in our prayer life, but in our whole relationship to God. As long as we are conscious of our helplessness, we will not be overtaken by any difficulty, disturbed by any distress or frightened by any hindrance. We will expect nothing of ourselves and therefore bring all our difficulties and hindrances to God in prayer. And this means to open the door unto Him and to give God the opportunity to help us in our helplessness by means of the miraculous powers which are at His disposal.
Jesus once said, “Without me you can do nothing†(Jn. 15:5). What is that but a simple recognition of our helplessness? Acknowledge to God over and over your helplessness.
What kind of week will you have?
Whatever happens, bring your helplessness before God and know that in some way, he will deliver and be faithful to his promises.
Yes, I like Hallesby and hope I still have his books. (I got rid of some old books some time ago, and may have let go of some I would now regret letting go of- I think it’s the same one you’re referring to).
Great post. Good reminder of how we can see God seeing us through those times when we cannot see, ourselves. Thanks!
As Paul said, when I am weak then I am strong. Therefore, he boasted of his weakness. Of course, his strength was Christ himself, who had overcome evil by the weak, foolishness of his cross.
Good post, Jim.
Jan,
Good to hear from you again. Thanks for the reminder from Paul.