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Have faith in God's goodness and love.
No one receives help from God because he or she has "been good"
enough to merit God's kindness. The grace of God is by
definition "unmerited kindness" and undeserved love. God
already loves us. He also already knows all about us.
We cannot put a spin on our behavior that will fool or impress
the Lord. He already knows all about who and what we are.
And yet He delights to do us good. It is His pleasure to
help, to rescue, to give and give, and to give again.
So why do we not always see the hand of God moving in response
to our prayers? Most often it is because we are blinded by
our own sins and whims. Because we are sinners, we have
our own tiny plans, our own narrow ideas of how things should
be, and so we often want things that make very little sense.
We may think, for example, that a heap of money would solves our
problems, when in fact it might actually finish us off.
What we really want and need is inner joy and peace.
Money, perfect health, popularity in the wrong crowd, and all
the other things we often grab for, may not meet the real needs
of our lives at all. And yet, the Lord will still often
give us what we seek.
When people came to Jesus asking for help, He often made them
state clearly what they wanted Him to do. The people He
helped were often very poor, and so a great many things might
have flashed through their minds, but they had to decide on what
they wanted most. Jesus never asked them what they needed
because He already knew their needs better than they did.
He asked them what they wanted. And no matter how
impossible the request, He gave it to them.
The Lord Jesus was acting out the kindness of God when he healed
ruined limbs, when He restored sight, when He raised the dead.
God intervenes to help us because He loves us. He is moved
by our sorrows and our pain, even when our misery is brought on
by our own foolish choices. God does not judge us when we
cry out for His help. He forgives and helps.
Too often, even when God is willing, we are not. Jesus
sometimes asked, "Do you believe I can do this for you?"
God looks to us for a response. He is ready to save us for
all eternity, for example, but He looks to us to believe in what
He promises to do. No one is saved who refuses to trust in
God. If we make Him out to be a liar or untrustworthy, we
cannot have what He truly wants to give. We must believe.
One of my favorite people in Scripture is the unnamed father who
brought his son to Jesus, hoping against hope for a miracle.
God knew all about this man before he ever approached the place
where the Lord had been teaching and ministering. Jesus
was up on the mountain praying and talking with Peter and James
and John, while the other disciples remained below. The
man's son was tormented by a demon. Years of this
affliction and failed "cures" had robbed the father of any real
hope, and yet he asked for help again. The disciples were
also unable to help the boy, even though they actively
ministered to the crowds.
Anyone having a child afflicted in this way knows the despair
this man lived with. There were no treatments or
medications in the first century that would ease the torments
brought about by epilepsy. And the demonic spirit used the
illness to eat way at any faith in God the parents might ever
hope to have. Satan knows his work, as do his hordes of
unclean spirits. They use the physical or psychological
afflictions we have in life to rob us of all hope if we allow
them to have their way.
As soon as the man brought his son to Jesus, the demonic spirit
put on a show. The Lord, however, was not impressed.
Instead, He addressed the needs of the father before freeing the
son. Jesus knew exactly how to heal the child and how to
drive the evil spirit away for good. But the father alone
could take the step that would begin the healing of his own
heart. Jesus pressed him with the truth.
Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible
to him who believes."
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with
tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:23,24,
NKJV)
The man, Jesus knew, had run out of faith and hope. And
yet he was there. What he needed, more than anything, was
to open his mouth and confess both his last shred of hope and
his need for living faith. "Lord, I do believe, I want to
believe, but please help me with my unbelief!"
Sometimes, all we have left inside is our desperation. We
have tried to pray, tried to believe God, tried to think the
right thoughts and to do the right things. But nothing
seems to make any difference at all. We don't know why God
is not helping us. Does He care? Does God hear
anything we pray? Is He even there at all? Is He
ignoring us because we have sinned too much for too long?
I want to make this very clear, because the Bible makes it very
clear: God hears you. God sees you. God will reach
out and help you. Jesus came into this world to help
people just like you and me, right where we are. He did
not fail in His mission. He took our place, suffering and
dying for our sins, and opening the doorway to heaven for every
sinner who is willing to approach God with the simplest,
smallest measure of faith. If all you have left in your
heart is a desperate plea for help, then God will hear you and
help you. He will intervene to do what no one else can do.
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