WHAT WE NEED WHEN WE NEED IT – Part 1 of 2

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  (Philippians 4:6)

Few people have witnessed more miracles than George Müller (1805 – 1898).

Along with pastoring one church for sixty-six years, Müller established the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England. He cared for 10,024 orphans while establishing 117 schools for their education throughout England. Adjusted for inflation, George Müller raised $150 million dollars for those kingdom causes. This is an incredible sum of money by any standard, but what makes it even more remarkable is the fact that George Müller never asked anyone for anything – not a single penny. He made a covenant to ask only God. Müller figured that God knew exactly what he needed and when he needed it, and God could make provision for it. It is estimated that Müller experienced thirty thousand specific answers to prayer, as recorded in his journal. Time and time again, food would be dropped off on their doorstep right when they ran out, a donation was made right before a bill came due, or a plumber offered his services right when a problem needed to be fixed.

I live by an Oswald Chambers maxim: “Let God be as original with other people as He is with you.” So I’m not prescribing George Müller’s methodology across the board. I think it’s okay to verbalize a need or ask for help, but shouldn’t we put it to prayer first rather than last? And why do we take matters into our own hands when we can put them into the hands of God? Few things are harder than letting go and letting God, but that’s what George Müller modeled. And I can think of thirty thousand reasons to follow his example. 

-- Mark Batterson in “The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible” 

#6026

PATIENT TRUST

“I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry.”  (Psalm 40:1) 

What does it look like to wait with patient trust?

Henri Nouwen gave us a picture of patient trust not long before he died in 1996. Writing about some trapeze artists who became good friends of his, he explained that there is a very special relationship between the flyer and catcher…

As the flyer is swinging high above the crowd, the moment comes when he lets go of the trapeze, when he arcs out into the air. For that moment, which must feel like an eternity, the flyer is suspended in nothingness. It is too late to reach back for the trapeze. There is no going back now. However, it is too soon to be grasped by the one who will catch him. He cannot accelerate the catch. In that moment, his job is to be as still and motionless as he can.

"The flyer must never try to catch the catcher," the trapeze artist told Nouwen. "He must wait in absolute trust. The catcher will catch him. But he must wait. His job is not to flail about in anxiety. In fact, if he does, it could kill him. His job is to be still. To wait. And to wait is the hardest work of all."

You may be in that very vulnerable moment right now -- you have let go of what God has called you to let go of, but can't feel God's other hand catching you yet. Will you wait in absolute trust? Will you be patient? Waiting requires patient trust. 

-- John Ortberg in “If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat”

#5203

LETTING GO

Jesus said, “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake, you will save it.”  (Matthew 16:25 NLT)

Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self… Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making… The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it… Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. 

-- C. S. Lewis in “Mere Christianity”

#5087

LOSING A LOVE ONE

Shortly after [our daughter] Hope died, I was at the cosmetics counter buying some mascara.  "Will this mascara run down my face when I cry?" I asked.

The girl behind the counter assured me it wouldn't and asked with a laugh in her voice. "Are you going to be crying?"

"Yes," I answered.  "I am."

We had Hope for 199 days.  We loved her.  We enjoyed her richly and shared her with everyone we could.  We held her during her seizures.  Then we let her go.

The day after we buried Hope, my husband said to me, "You know, I think we expected our faith to make this hurt less, but it doesn't.  Our faith gave us an incredible amount of strength and encouragement while we had Hope, and we are comforted by the knowledge that she is in heaven.  Our faith keeps us from being swallowed by despair.  But I don't think it makes our loss hurt any less." 

-- Nancy Guthrie in “Holding on to Hope” 

#4893

CASTING YOUR CARES ON THE LORD

"Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you." -- Psalm 55:22 (NIV)

The word "cast" brings a picture of throwing or pushing away and that is exactly what we must learn to do with our worldly cares. Jesus can handle them. We sometimes give them a nice kick toward the Lord in a sort of ceremonial way, but hang on just enough to stay involved! We may actually be thinking, "Well, I can handle this or that myself;" and that thinking gets us into trouble. We try to fix, control or otherwise manipulate situations that we should have left to our Lord. Fling your cares toward our loving Lord and enjoy the freedom of living!

-- Rev. Gary Stone

#4115

FACING UP TO THE TRUTH

The teachings of Christ reveal Him to be a realist in the finest meaning of that word. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find anything visionary or overoptimistic. He told His hearers the whole truth and let them make up their minds. He might grieve over the retreating form of an inquirer who could not face up to the truth, but He never ran after him to try to win him with rosy promises. Jesus would have men follow Him, knowing the cost, or He would let them go their ways.


-- A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), quoted by Edythe Draper in Draper's Book of Quotations for the Christian World (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1992).




#3882

GIVING UP THE BALANCE SHEET

Forgiveness is a choice.  It's a decision about how we deal with the past.  One choice we can make about wrongs we have suffered in the past is to seek revenge.  "Don't get mad, get even" is a popular saying these days.  The idea behind it is an economic one, that there is a balance owed to me because I have been wronged, that I will feel poor and deprived until the day I have found satisfaction for the wrongs committed against me.  I may resort to a lawsuit or to the cold shoulder or to some other method, but I will make the wrongdoer pay dearly.

To choose forgiveness instead is to give up the balance sheet view of things.  By letting go of what I perceive as wrongs committed against me, I can also let go of bitterness and resentment.  I no longer have to wait for vindication, for evening the score.  At any moment I can choose to take control of how I feel about the past.

-- Kenneth L. Gibble in Alive Now, July/August 1995, published by The Upper Room, Nashville, TN.   Used with permission.


#3004