March 10, 1998
Betty, an eighty-one year old heart patient and almost totally deaf, told her pastor she wanted to be involved in ministry to other people, despite her health problems. So a few people in her church went to her farm where she lived, and taught her how to use a computer.
Betty started using the Internet to find prayer groups and began praying for posted requests. She then began e-mail with those people to see how they were doing and how she could pray further for them. Some of these new friends started visiting Betty on her farm. They wanted to meet this warm-hearted, caring lady. Betty has even volunteered to organize a prayer network.
One of the dilemmas and fears of growing old is losing a sense of personal worth and significance. These are basic human needs, yet diminishing strength or health problems can rob us of the ability to do those things that once gave us fulfilment.
God’s people are not exempt from these fears. In Psalm 71, the psalmist wrote, “Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone . . . . Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare Your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare Your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.” Betty may have prayed this prayer.
Along with this accurate description of human need, God promises He will be faithful to His people. In another psalm, the writer declares, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Betty is a contemporary example that a failing heart and deafness do not hinder God from pouring His strength into those who long to serve Him.
Our weaknesses and sense of incapacity do not limit God’s power. The Apostle Paul, although younger than Betty at the time, also felt unable to do the things God called him to do. In 2 Corinthians he wrote about an experience that was so incredible God had to give him a “thorn in the flesh” to keep him from becoming conceited. The Bible does not tell us what that thorn was but we can identify with Paul. Just like him, aside from our strengths we have limitations that seem to stand in the way of our becoming and doing all that we want to do.
Paul asked God three times to take away his “thorn” but God did not do it. Instead, He promised: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” That promise is God’s answer to our feelings of inadequacy also.
God doesn’t need our strengths and abilities in order to use us. A primary example is salvation. The Bible clearly says God does not ask for our character to reach a certain level or our performance to conform to certain standards before He forgives our sins. In the same way, He works in the lives of His people apart from what we can do.
This does not mean our skills and abilities are useless but whatever we do has no eternal significance or consequence apart from being empowered by God. In other words, even if we go through the motions of serving Him, unless His power is there, our work is to no avail.
On the other hand, God’s people are not robots. We have longings and desires and can make choices. As we learn to align those with what we know of God’s will, we find that He is not only willing but able to give us the capacities we need to carry out what He has put on our minds.
Betty illustrates that, but her story does not end with God supernatural blessing of strength in her weakness. She recently went to see her doctor. After examining her, he asked what she had been “taking” that he didn’t know about. She was puzzled and said, “Nothing.” At that her amazed doctor told her, “Betty, your heart is healed.”
The Lord became the “strength of her heart” in more ways than one.
Showing posts with label useful. Show all posts
Showing posts with label useful. Show all posts
Friday, May 12, 2017
Monday, February 23, 2015
Discarded and Useless? ................. Parables 239
(October 17, 1990)
The old crab apple tree was dead, an eyesore in the back yard. It’s owner remembered years of fruit-bearing as he sadly axed the tree and cut it into firewood for his barbecue pit. While he chopped, an elderly neighbor dropped by. The owner remarked how his tree was rotten to the core and no longer useful. The neighbor looked through the growing pile of wood, selected a few pieces, and asked if he could borrow them. The tree owner nodded and went back to his axe.
A few days later, the neighbor came to the door. In his hand was a small wooden plate and an intricately carved wooden gavel. “Just thought I’d return your ‘useless’ firewood,” he said.
“Rotten and useless” is sometimes a matter of “Sez who?” The peach I refuse to eat may be perfectly acceptable to a pig who isn’t quite as fussy. What I might save for recycling, someone else would toss out. And how about people? Are some really rotten through and through? When it comes to evaluating folks, our estimation might be just a matter of opinion.
There were some definitely rotten characters in the Bible. One was Cain, who murdered his brother Abel — because he was jealous. Another was Judas Iscariot, who sold Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. We might expect God to put these on the discard pile.
Or how about Jacob? He duped his older brother into trading a bowl of porridge for his birthright, an important status in a Jewish family. Not only that, he dressed up in his brother’s clothes and fooled his father into giving him the blessing that didn’t belong to him. He wrangled and dealed for years and had he lived today, he would have been labeled a no-good cheat.
Then there was a king named Manasseh, who “seduced (the people) to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed... he did wickedly above all that the Amorites did... made Judah sin with his idols... shed innocent blood... till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another... made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem do worse than the heathen, whom the LORD had destroyed...”
Sounds like four rotten-to-the-core people. Would God discard all four? Surprisingly not; two of them were redeemed. That is, two were forgiven and became righteous, useful citizens.
At first, it appears the other two, who didn’t rate, were tossed aside because their sins were worse. However, when examining Scripture, the degree of sinfulness is not a significant factor to redemption. Instead, it appears God reached out His loving hand to all four, but only two reached back.
Jacob literally wrestled with God, not to get away from Him but with a strong effort to obtain a blessing, something he definitely didn’t deserve. God touched Jacob’s life and changed him from a scheming cheat to a godly man. Manasseh wrestled in a different way. God sent an enemy nation to destroy his reign. As the Assyrian army carried Manasseh off to Babylon bound in chains, he “humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto Him.” God heard his prayer and brought him back to reign again. Manasseh took away the idols and restored worship. He was a changed man.
Cain and Judas didn’t fare so well. Neither one sought the Lord with humility or a contrite heart. One “went out from the presence of the Lord” and the other tried to deal with his guilt by destroying himself.
When it comes down to it, most of us evaluate “rotten people” like the man with the axe and the crab apple tree. We too easily see only useless lives, whereas God can see potential and purpose. Not only that, when yielded to Him, uselessness can become something beautiful in His hands.
The old crab apple tree was dead, an eyesore in the back yard. It’s owner remembered years of fruit-bearing as he sadly axed the tree and cut it into firewood for his barbecue pit. While he chopped, an elderly neighbor dropped by. The owner remarked how his tree was rotten to the core and no longer useful. The neighbor looked through the growing pile of wood, selected a few pieces, and asked if he could borrow them. The tree owner nodded and went back to his axe.
A few days later, the neighbor came to the door. In his hand was a small wooden plate and an intricately carved wooden gavel. “Just thought I’d return your ‘useless’ firewood,” he said.
“Rotten and useless” is sometimes a matter of “Sez who?” The peach I refuse to eat may be perfectly acceptable to a pig who isn’t quite as fussy. What I might save for recycling, someone else would toss out. And how about people? Are some really rotten through and through? When it comes to evaluating folks, our estimation might be just a matter of opinion.
There were some definitely rotten characters in the Bible. One was Cain, who murdered his brother Abel — because he was jealous. Another was Judas Iscariot, who sold Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. We might expect God to put these on the discard pile.
Or how about Jacob? He duped his older brother into trading a bowl of porridge for his birthright, an important status in a Jewish family. Not only that, he dressed up in his brother’s clothes and fooled his father into giving him the blessing that didn’t belong to him. He wrangled and dealed for years and had he lived today, he would have been labeled a no-good cheat.
Then there was a king named Manasseh, who “seduced (the people) to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed... he did wickedly above all that the Amorites did... made Judah sin with his idols... shed innocent blood... till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another... made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem do worse than the heathen, whom the LORD had destroyed...”
Sounds like four rotten-to-the-core people. Would God discard all four? Surprisingly not; two of them were redeemed. That is, two were forgiven and became righteous, useful citizens.
At first, it appears the other two, who didn’t rate, were tossed aside because their sins were worse. However, when examining Scripture, the degree of sinfulness is not a significant factor to redemption. Instead, it appears God reached out His loving hand to all four, but only two reached back.
Jacob literally wrestled with God, not to get away from Him but with a strong effort to obtain a blessing, something he definitely didn’t deserve. God touched Jacob’s life and changed him from a scheming cheat to a godly man. Manasseh wrestled in a different way. God sent an enemy nation to destroy his reign. As the Assyrian army carried Manasseh off to Babylon bound in chains, he “humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto Him.” God heard his prayer and brought him back to reign again. Manasseh took away the idols and restored worship. He was a changed man.
Cain and Judas didn’t fare so well. Neither one sought the Lord with humility or a contrite heart. One “went out from the presence of the Lord” and the other tried to deal with his guilt by destroying himself.
When it comes down to it, most of us evaluate “rotten people” like the man with the axe and the crab apple tree. We too easily see only useless lives, whereas God can see potential and purpose. Not only that, when yielded to Him, uselessness can become something beautiful in His hands.
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