November 6-7 – Love lifted me

“Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24b-25a NLT, second edition)

You may have heard this testimony of a Chinese Christian: “I walked through the road of life and had fallen into a great ditch. The ditch was filled with depression, discouragement, and sin. As I lay in that ditch, Mohammed came along and said, ‘It’s your fault you’re in the ditch. You offended Allah, and this is your just punishment.’ Then Marx came by and said, ‘You’re in the ditch because of class warfare. You must revolt.’ But after the government changed, I was still in my ditch. Then Buddha came along and said, ‘You’re not really in that ditch. You just think you’re there. It’s all an illusion of the mind. Be at peace, and learn to live in your ditch.’ Then Confucius came by and said, ‘Here are the 10 steps of self-attainment by which you can get out of your ditch. If you will struggle, you will climb out eventually.’ But as much as I struggled and strained, I couldn’t get out of the ditch, because it was too deep.

“Then one day, Jesus Christ came by and saw me in my ditch. Without a word, he took off his white robe and got down in the muddy ditch with me. Then he lifted me up with his strong arms and pulled me out of the ditch. Thank God that Jesus did for me what I could not do for myself.”

Jesus did for us what we could not do for ourselves.

To get healing in our lives we have to believe that Christ can change us. Romans 7:24-25 says, “Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (NLT, second edition).

The answer to our problem is a person. Who’s going to be lord of our lives? Who’s going to call the shots? Us or Jesus Christ? When we accept Him as our Master, we can master our problems. God has the power we were lacking. He’ll help us out.

“You bless all who depend on you for their strength.” (Psalm 84:5a CEV)

Are you tired? Some of us are running on steam. As I said yesterday, we are a tired lot. At the end of the day, we're worn out – energy gone - and the reason why is real simple: We're human beings.

Our strength is limited. God’s strength is unlimited. Our strength is finite. God’s strength is infinite. Our strength is exhaustible — that’s why we get exhausted! But God’s strength is inexhaustible. God never runs out of energy. God never gets tired.

Psalm 84:5 says, “You bless all who depend on you for their strength” (CEV). Do you want God’s blessing in your life? Then you need to depend on God for your strength.

One of the most famous Christians of the 19^th century was a guy named Hudson Taylor. He was a missionary to China, a spiritual giant and a brilliant man. In his old age, he lost his health and became very weak. He wrote a letter to a friend that said this: “I am so weak I can no longer work. I am so weak I can no longer study. I am so weak I can no longer read my Bible. I cannot even pray. I can only lie still in the arms of God like a little child in trust.”

It's not unlikely that at sometime in our lives we too are going to be so weak we can’t even pray, read the Bible, or go to a Bible study. We can’t work, can’t do anything. What do we do in those moments? We rest in the strength of the Lord, in his arms like a little child, and we trust.

Weakness can actually be a blessing for good in our lives if it causes us to depend on God. Paul, speaking of the thorn in his flesh says in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10, “Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (NLT, second edition).

That’s the paradox of depending on God — the more we’re weak, the more we depend on God. And the more we depend on God, the stronger we get, because Jesus has taken off His white robe and got down in the muddy ditch with us. Lifted us up in His strong arms and pulled us up out of the ditch.

Acknowledgements Rick Warren.

Music today is “Love Lifted Me” - sung by Kim Hopper. To listen to this wonderful truth, click on the picture.