WHAT’S WRONG WITH ASKING JESUS?
II Samuel 22:2-4 He said: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the strength of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior - from violent men you save me. I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.
Today as I was watching Joel Osteen on the TV, I heard him basically say this same thing several times that King David sang before the Lord. What struck a chord with me was his determination to direct our attention for all our hope to the Lord. It was not a matter of; you can do it if you make up your mind to doing it, but rather look to Jesus because he can do whatever you need! In a way it is strange that when we come to Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life with him, we are so broken with the knowledge that we are helpless. Then it seems we that when get up from the altar we start trying to do everything on our own once again! And it is not just in being good enough to be accepted by Jesus, but how we are going to pay our bills, get to work on time, and a host of other things.
As David and Joel Osteen points out to us, Jesus can do it all. He is our strength and our shield! What we need to remember is he will always respect our free will, and this is not only here on earth but for eternity in heaven. James 4:2 reminds us that we have not because we ask not. For most Christians our major problem in life is that we simply don’t as Jesus to help us! Maybe it’s because we feel unworthy or we feel silly asking Jesus to help us get a parking place. We are wrong! We are considered worthy by Jesus because he loves us, and even considers us his Bride. We wouldn’t consider it silly for our child to ask for help tying a shoe or cutting up their meat. What Jesus considers silly is when we don’t ask for his help in all matters of our life. He not only wants to bless us, but in doing it he is also glorified. Jesus gets as much joy in helping us to do the small things as he does curing us of cancer, and it is no harder for him to do one as the other. We must simply ask! Why should we wait until our back is up against the wall, and we have tried all other means to help us? We shouldn’t feel we have to be desperate inorder to cry out to Jesus. We would feel terrible if our children would do this regarding our helping them.
Another thing that Christians do in regards to getting help from Jesus is we come to him when we have a problem. Why not go to him before the problems start coming our way? Before we ever have our breakfast we need to spend time with Jesus. We need to fellowship with God under the direction and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This can be speaking in tongues, but most often the Holy Spirit will put on our heart what we need to be talking to Jesus about. Before I ever get in the car, or even know that I am going anywhere I pray that the Lord will keep my family and myself safe from having accidents, problems and getting tickets. That’s right, I pray we won’t get tickets! I don’t want them! I am convinced Jesus is more than able and happy to go before us to keep us safe, help us to drive safely and correctly, and even keep Satan, the powers of darkness from messing with our cars! Remember we have not because we ask not!
I pray that the Lord will keep us from temptation and evil. Why not?
I pray that he will help us not to sin and have regrets. I pray that the Lord will help us in all that we do, and help us not to be doing things we shouldn’t be doing. I pray that he will fill us with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. I pray he will help us to be a blessing to him and others and never a curse. And I certainly pray the he will always help us to love Jesus putting him first in our lives now and forever, and to help all my descendants to become Christians and to love Jesus too.
I could go one, but I know that you have the idea. Why not pray in advance to keep the problems away? Granted we have no idea of all that our day or life holds for us, but we do know who is willing to hold our hand and help us step by step all the way. It’s like the song or poem, “Footprints in the Sand” by Margaret Fishback Powers where she points out that in those hard times Jesus even carries us. What we need to remind ourselves is not to let ourselves forget Jesus and drift away from him. We can do this by not asking for help, or simply going ahead on our own thinking we are more than able to handle what is up ahead of us. Maybe we need to go throughout our day with the song, “Just a Closer Walk With Thee” in our heart. Maybe just maybe we will at last catch on to what King David and Joel Osteen know, and that is we can do all thing through Christ Jesus our Lord! (Philippians 4:13)
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for loving us so much, and wanting to help us. Please help us to practice your presence in our life in such a way that for every need, and even our hearts desires, you will always be our first thought to look to. We love you Jesus!
