SIT DOWN AND BE QUIET

“Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seatedas much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish,” (John 6:11 NIV).



Have you ever noticed this pattern in the gospels – the disciples get in a bind and Jesus bails them out. It reminds me of the old fifties program, Father Knows Best. The kids got in trouble, the father solved the problem and then he taught us all an important life lesson at the end. Come to think of it, “Father Knows Best” would be a fabulous subtitle for the gospels!

In John 6:1-15 we find the disciples in a precarious situation. Their lawn party had turned into quite a bash. The guests far exceeded their expectations, the disciples hadn’t planned on providing dinner, and it appeared the crowd was expecting refreshments. But the disciples didn’t have the funds or the food to feed them. All they could scrounge up were five loaves of bread and two dried fish. The crowd was getting restless, the disciples were getting nervous, and Jesus was getting ready. He took the five loaves and two fish and told the crowd to sit down – he told them to rest.

Then He lifted the food toward heaven, blessed it, and commanded the disciples to hand out the provisions to those who were seated. He didn’t feed the people who were running around worrying – but the ones who were at rest. To those He gave “immeasurably more than they could ask or imagine” (see Ephesians 3:20 , with twelve baskets left over.

When we believe God, we will have rest and peace in our lives. I want you to do something for me. Right now, I want you to use your imagination. The Bible tells us in Ephesians that we are “in Christ” and Christ is “in us.” It also tells us that we are seated “in heavenly places” and “transferred to the kingdom of Christ.” Picture yourself sitting right beside Jesus under a spreading oak tree. Perhaps His arm is around your shoulder and your head is resting on his chest. You can feel the beating of His heart against your cheek and your head moves with the rise and fall of His breathing. With His other hand, He strokes your head and immediately knows how many hairs are on your head. His breath warms your skin as it brushes past your face. Imagine Him looking into your eyes and knowing your innermost being and meeting your gaze with a warm, affirming smile reassuring you of His love and care.

Now tell me, as you imagine yourself in the presence of Jesus, how anxious do you feel? How rejected do you feel? How worried about tomorrow are you?. No matter what you are going through today, Jesus is right there with you. So maybe you just need to sit down and be quiet for a while.

 

Believing God Knows Best

“In all their distress he too was distressed,” (Isaiah 63:9 NIV).

When bad things happen we may never understand the why. God tells us, “’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Dr. James Dobson said: “Trying to analyze His omnipotence is like an amoeba attempting to comprehend the behavior of man.” It’s simply not possible. But there is one thing we can be sure of. “All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful,” (Psalm 25:10) whether we understand them or not.
When we encounter difficulties, it is easy to jump to conclusions. We may think God is mad at us or punishing us. We wonder if God is not blessing us because we’ve disappointed Him in some way. But all through the Bible we see that some of God’s closest friends experienced the darkest nights.
Joseph suffered. David suffered. The disciples suffered. Elizabeth suffered. Mary suffered. Martha suffered. Mary (Jesus’ mother) suffered. Paul suffered. Jesus suffered. And each one of these men and women were smack dab in the middle of God’s will. The ordinary pabulum of popular religion, of health and prosperity, just doesn’t line up with the suffering we see among some of the most godly men and women in Scripture. The abundant life that Jesus came to give does not come without struggle any more than a butterfly can soar without a struggle from its cocoon. We would never slice open a cocoon and expect to find a butterfly ready to fly. Without the struggle, the butterfly could not grow strong enough to take flight.
Jesus warned us that we would have struggles in this life, and yet struggles always seem to catch me by surprise. “Consider it all joy,” James said, “when you encounter various trials…” (James 1:2, NASB). Notice James said when and not if. Honestly, I wish there were some other way.
Come to think of it, Jesus wished the same. “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will,” (Matthew 26:39). The cross. There was no other way.
Take a look at the names given to the Holy Spirit: Intercessor, Helper, Counselor, and Comforter. The very nature of those names lets us know that we are going to have difficulties this side of heaven, and thankfully God did not leave us to struggle alone. Jesus wept. The Holy Spirit groans. And God’s heart aches. In one beautiful sentence, we catch a glimpse into the heart of God as we go through tough times: “In all their distress he too was distressed,” (Isaiah 63:9). We may not see God’s face during the difficult days of pain, but you can be sure He is there, and many times His face is streaked with tears.
Sometimes life is tough. As we practice Acts 17:28, In Him we live and move and have our being, it does not mean that we will walk a down path void of treacherous twists and turns. It does mean that no matter where the road may lead, we are not alone.
So many times I’ve cried out with King David, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” only to discover that He was right there with me all the time. None of us knows what the future holds. Sometimes we just need to put our hand in God’s and walk around the next corner with Him—even when we don’t understand. In that journey of the unknown, we’re apt to experience moments of sudden glory in well-placed nuggets of gold.

CHECK THE LABEL

“When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, ‘Woman, you are set free from your infirmity’ ” (Luke 13:12).

Have you ever wondered if God even knows your name? Have you doubted His awareness or even His concern about what you are going through? Have there been times when you felt totally alone and worthless? I have. I can really relate to the woman described in Luke 13. Oh, our problems may not be exactly the same, but the feelings and emotions are – and so is the answer.

Jesus knew this woman. He knew she had been sick for 18 long years and that she had tried everything to be healed. He knew – but He looked past her pain and saw who she really was, and all she was created to be. He could have called her by name, but instead He said, “Woman.” Jesus included her whole identity in that name; everything she was at that moment, everything she had been in the past, everything she hoped to be in the future. He knew every detail of her life, and He loved her. And just as He loved this broken woman, He loves you.

Truth: Your identity was established before the world began, in the heart and mind of God.

This woman had been assigned an identity by the relentless illness that plagued her body. Anyone who knew her identified her by that illness. Her heart must have been filled with feelings of unworthiness. I imagine she felt unwanted and unloved. She must have felt like a nobody. But when Jesus saw her, He looked at her through different eyes and called her to Himself. With one word from Him, everything changed and would never be the same again. All of a sudden, she was somebody.

There she stood, sick and in pain to the point that she was completely doubled over. Imagine what she felt when she realized that Jesus was talking to her. He was calling her - an outcast. And when she heard His voice, she heard something she hadn’t heard for a very long time, if ever. She heard the unfamiliar but longed-for voice of love.

Many of us feel unwanted and unloved, but we can be assured that God knows us and loves us just as we are and right where we are, in the midst of our mess and sickness. One of my favorite verses of Scripture is Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.” Your identity was established before the world began, in the heart and mind of God. Before you were wanted or not wanted by human hearts, before you were planned or not planned by human minds, you were wanted and planned in the heart and mind of God. Created by God…for God. Wow! That makes you important. You are valuable—and the simple but almost unbelievable reason is that God created you. You can judge a product’s worth and value by looking at the one who made it.

Take a look at your label found in Psalm 139:13-16: For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful; I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Grab hold of the truth that God knows you, loves you and is for you. And that is all you need to face whatever life brings your way.