JESUS CAN LIKE NOBODY CAN
Jonah 2:1,2a From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.
I don’t know about you but I have really gotten myself into some real messes, and sometimes the messes were not my fault. Either way I didn’t like them. I like my life nice and smooth without frustrations and problems. I have a tendency to be a people pleaser and a frustrated perfectionist. A frustrated perfectionist is someone that wants to be perfect but never is. That’s pretty much me in a nutshell, and I am sure many people think I am a nut and not necessary in a nice way. Being an evangelical, conservative, speaking in tongues gifted charismatic Christian almost made it too much for my laity and co-pastors in the United Methodist Church. For the most part they were very good to tolerate me at least for three or four years. With the exception of Niantic that let me stay for thirteen years. I think God has a special blessing in heaven for them showing me such grace.
We all have our problems in life. It truly rains on the just and unjust. There is a free will even for Christians, and I believe we will still have one in heaven. There is a freedom in all creation. Today on my motorcycle ride I saw several animals along the side of the road where they had been hit by a car. God didn’t push them out in front of the car. He didn’t make the wind blow all my neighbors leaves into my yard. As much as Satan and the powers of darkness would like for us to blame the Lord for every bad thing that happens in our life, that is just not true. Now Satan, the powers of darkness and the evil of this world might like to bring frustration, sorrow and even death to us the Lord doesn’t nor will he ever. The Bible tells us that God doesn’t even delight in the death of the wicked.
What God delights in is when we cry out to him from our distress and ask for his help. Infact he delights in our asking him from keeping us from harm, frustration, the attacks from Satan, the powers of darkness and the evil of this world. God even desires us to trust him to protect us from the freedom of creation. God not only wants to help us get out of the pit, but even keep us from going into the pit to begin with. God is a good God! God has been so good to our family. One day after a baseball game our son Joshua was playing in I saw dark clouds headed towards our home. The Lord put on my heart to not go home right away, but go to another town and have a bite to eat. When we finally got home there had been a huge tornado that had touched down right on the edge of our town. It had not destroyed homes, but left a lot of damage. So am I saying that God answered my prayer that morning when I asked for his protection for our family? Yes I am!
Another time we were on our way down the interstate to Decatur when I saw a tornado form, and come down to the the ground just a few miles beside us. I told our family to pray, and I asked Jesus to reach right down and pull it back up into the clouds. In no less than fifteen seconds that tornado began to go back up into the clouds from the bottom up. The tornado didn’t just disappear on the ground or fly apart. It literally went back up into the cloud that it came from. We didn’t see Jesus’ hand, but we saw the results of it. Even on the evening news they had pictures of it, and were amazed that it didn’t touch down. So am I saying that Jesus intervened just because our family asked him to. Yes I am! I can remember very plainly lying on my bed crying at the thought that I could not meet the Greek requirements for graduating from seminary. I was as much in the belly of a great fish as Jonah. My wife and I had quit both our teaching jobs, so I could go to seminary to pastor in the United Methodist Church. We were quickly using up all our savings and neither of us had a job for income. We had risked everything for a chance to tell people about Jesus, and now the seminary said I couldn’t get my degree. My wife Beckie heard me crying out to the Lord and came in to encourage me. We prayed that so how the Lord would do the impossible and help me pass the Greek requirements so I could graduate. A few months went by and I was call to the office of a Greek professor and he told me that next semester the school would be starting a new Greek program I might be interested in. That program would enable me to be able to use other books to help interpret the Greek. With this course I was able to fulfill the requirements and get my masters of divinity. So am I saying Jesus had that school create a new course just for me? Yes I am.
Jesus has done so many more than for us when we and others were in distress and even despair. James 4:2 says, “We have not because we ask not.” I personally am not so proud as to be in the pit or stay in the pit of despair when I don’t have to. The Lord delight in helping us by preventing something or getting out of something, even if it is a big fish!
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you so much for your passion to help us. We are encouraged that there is nothing greater in power or anything else that can deter your blessing us. Please continue to have complete freedom in our lives to do your will and to help us. We love you Jesus!
