Matthew 9:36

P 3174 Let’s get rid of abstract concepts …

/ DVH

… and go for REALITY instead! For years we’ve gone about repeating bible verses over and over, in the hope that saying them all the time, meant we would become them. Has anybody out there noticed that that idea doesn’t work? Even sincerity can be dodgy, we need to activate our faith by living it! There’s nothing wrong with knowing, and prayerfully linking bible verses to our circumstances, but we need to remind ourselves that we are not ordering something from a catalogue – we are conversing with Almighty God, the God of all the Ages, the High and Holy One! Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us. HE knows how to pray!!

In every kind of trouble, it’s not all about what I need, it’s about what He wants. Under pressure, we are more than capable of praying those catalogue-type repetitive prayers, given the right circumstances. However, the best kind of prayer is this: “what do You want right here, right now, Father God?” Then we need to stop and listen for His whisper. Love Himself is knocking on our door, just let Him in, because He will not desert us. 

The day before yesterday, hail stones the size of tennis balls were hitting the side of our house and a medium sized waterfall began to merrily cascade down from our bedroom ceiling onto our bed and the floor. It was scary, a-n-d … I forgot my own advice! Eventually, because the Lord is always gracious, when I stopped praying prayers AT Him, and talked TO Him, He whispered to me: “It’s all OK, just wait, you’ll see, it will be OK.”  I’ve learnt that He does not always answer us immediately. That’s because He’s the King and we are not. Every time I went back into anxiety, I handed the situation over to Him again… and went off to sleep. 

Then at 1.00am this morning we had to physically move out of our bedroom, because the waterfall started up again with a vengeance, so I focussed on what He had said to me, and I started to do a lot better… This is how faith grows, it gets stretched by something bigger than we are!

In the middle of the first storm, our neighbour was on her way to pick up her child from school, and she too encountered very large hailstones and a bit of someone else’s roof- while she was driving her car!  She’s OK praise God. But, even though I didn’t know it, I was praying for her at the time.

Actually, I didn’t have a scripture settle in my heart until after the hailstones stopped crashing into our house! Then I suddenly remembered: “…before you call I will answer you…” Isaiah 65:24. I kept on asking Him to help us, and the Holy Spirit totally helped me find my peace in the middle of this physical and emotional storm. Until I get another scripture, I will simply hold onto what He said, as we wait to find out what happens to our roof today.  

Right now I want to talk about conversational prayer – the kind that isn’t formal, but it is based on relationship. It often seems so natural that you aren’t sure if you are doing it right! It means we don’t talk AT Him, we talk TO Him. Remember, He’s the best Dad ever!  Our Heavenly Father is always watching, always listening to every single cry and prayer. That means He isn’t like earthly Dads, preoccupied by other things. 

He lovingly pays attention to each and every single one of us. Right now the Holy Spirit is roaming all over the earth … 2 Chronicles 16:9a – “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth so that He may support those whose heart is completely His…”  It is good to remember that the Holy Spirit is our support team and He hovers over each and every one of our hearts. He has such a deep love for human beings – whether they know-Jesus-yet-or-not.The very essence of leaning on Him means, without His stability we will probably fall over!

Matthew 21:22 says: “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Here’s another slant on that —  I believe He is good. This means I can receive His totally focussed personal attention at any time. I can always talk to Him. Remember, He doesn’t hold grudges – Jesus already paid for our access! Just talk to your Father about what is happening, and ask Him to help you deal with it.  Ask for His wisdom, and comfort. Whether you have been formally introduced to the Lord or not. He knows you. 

When we look at Jesus’ life on earth we can see that He did not demand this or that from the people He prayed for, He simply prayed for them. He saw their need and met it. We have complicated the Way our Heavenly Father works to the point that people think they must meet certain conditions to hear from Him. Back then, not one person who asked for help was turned away, they all received acceptance and love. At calvary, His compassion overflowed toward mankind. IT STILL DOES – it’s bigger than the waterfall in our bedroom!

Psalm 145:8: “The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.” Psalm 103:8 – “The LORD is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.”  Matthew 14:14-21- “And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.” Matthew 9:36 says- “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” 

It isn’t about whatever is happening to us, it is about our faith in His goodness holding us up in spite of the situation. Our abstract concepts need to go into the bin. Now we are deliberately choosing to learn to live using our faith in His Kingdom reality. Bless you! 👋

P 2988 I can’t cope Lord.

/ DVH

There are times where we feel we need to make a ‘good confession,’ and repeat some scripture or other, when life has knocked us down — or we will be failing Him, or betraying our faith. No pressure or anything! I’d like to momentarily call your attention to the Old Testament where real people grizzled their heads off!  There are also plenty of illustrations in the New.

Today I want to point out that the Psalmists talked a lot about their enemies flourishing, plus having to hang around with wicked people, and their souls being tormented etc. So did the prophets. It is not a sin if you cannot cope! It is a sign of our own humanity. None of us are perfected yet, we are on a road with Him, learning as we go. We have the benefit of the bible, and the Holy Spirit telling us to ‘put our foot here, and put our foot there.’  And on many days we are walking up a very slippery slope. Without Him we would slip away. Overcoming is not just about having a positive outlook. Overcoming is getting up again, soaked to the skin by our own tears, covered in other people’s filth, or our own … and taking yet another trembling step.

The Holy Spirit is incredible. He can be in Dubai comforting someone, and in Tasmania comforting someone else etc. – all at the same time! He’s everywhere – because He is needed everywhere.There are some places that are so deep, so fraught with despair, that only Jesus Himself understands them. Other people can only look on in horror at our suffering. The Holy Spirit gives us Christ’s own words to shed light at these times when others are on the darkest of paths. But that does not mean the path is not painful. We cannot psyche ourselves into thinking evil to be ignored and pretend we are fine. That’s Disney – not the GOSPEL! God’s glory in these situations, is that these dear people keep on following HIM, trembling, walking on in naked bleeding faith.

In my limited experience, sensitive souls are often fighting off oppression through no fault of their own. If we are not careful we will end up developing a ‘Cone of Silence’ …thank you, Maxwell Smart! That spy loved that stupid thing … but it never did work properly!! Moving on …the bible is full of people who felt that what God asked them to do was bigger than they were. Starting with Moses, who pushed his younger brother into the firing line.  Whizzing right past Abraham – who tried to help God out because the Lord was taking His own time.  

Sometimes the “silence of God” can lead to not coping, and that is where we need our Christian families. Not to labour the point, but the other day I mentioned Ecclesiastes 3 — where not coping is clearly legitimised. God has allowed us time to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. That valley can be the death of a loved one, the death of a dream or the death of greatly needed relationship or position. 

Almighty God Himself chose to become human, so now He has a personal understanding of the result of pain in human lives.  Jesus stands next to His throne, praying for us as we walk through those valleys and He doesn’t have a stop watch on us! He has a big staff in His hands so He can clobber our enemies, not us!  We must always remember the compassion that Jesus had for people in all kinds of trouble, some of it self-inflicted.

There is no right way to suffer:“For I consider [from the standpoint of faith] that the sufferings of the present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us!” Romans 8:18. God has a plan – it’s a good plan – because He is a good God. Jesus told us that we would have trials, He said this to give us heart, as we wade through evil times and circumstances. What He said is meant to be a comfort, because He is there with us. John 16:33. “These things I have spoken unto you, that IN ME ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” HE WON!! That’s all we need to know, and sometimes it’s all we can handle.

It is mean-spirited to judge and sentence others about their inability to handle any kind of pain. What someone else can blissfully sail through, might bring my life to a screeching halt. Compassion is a real word, and it is lacking in the body of Christ today. “When He (Jesus) saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Matthew 9:36. And compassion is not just the ability to say: “Oh, I am so sorry that happened to you,” sincerely. That’s a good beginning, but it is not the whole story. 

Compassion is understanding that any sheep – plagued, damaged, and surrounded by wolves and lions – will struggle to keep going. Meanwhile what do we think WE are still in this world for? We are His hands and feet, our place in this world is to take kindness and compassion to those who suffer. Whether they are Christian or not. Faith fades when you are in pain. Many battles are too much for us – we need help from those around us.

I have often said: “I cannot cope Lord.” And I have seen the Lord deliver me so many times I can’t count them … but I don’t always whistle a happy tune…sometimes I bawl my eyes out.  He gently holds my hand either way. Showing caring compassion is the very least we can do for each other. Bye. 😭