WE DON’T WANT TO MAKE JESUS DO ANYTHING
John 2:4,5 “Dear woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied, “My time has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
This takes place at a wedding reception. There was great celebration and they ran out of wine. Wine would have been a very important part of the wedding celebration, and to run out didn’t cast a very good image on the parents or the couple. Jesus must have been doing miracles in his home, because his mother Mary did’t think twice it seems to ask Jesus to fix the situation. Possibly to her surprise Jesus didn’t want to make wine for them. He said his time had not come. Jesus wasn’t ready to call attention to himself by doing supernatural miracles. But maybe to his surprise his mother almost puts her foot down, and tells the servant to do whatever he says, implying, “I am the mother still, and I want you to do this!” Now, of course Mary didn’t say this, but maybe her eyes or the tone of her voice did, because Jesus made the wine.
In the Catholic Church it is common practice for them to pray to Jesus’ mother Mary. Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus ever say that it is alright to pray to her or any Christians that have died. We can pray God and that includes the Heavenly Father, the Holy Spirit and Jesus. Praying to or talking to people that have died, angels both holy or demonic is forbidden. We see this in Deuteronomy 18:9-13.
The reason that most people feel they need to pray to Mary or someone or something else is that they feel they are unworthy to pray to God and he will not answer their requests. It all goes back to Mary overruling Jesus making the wine. They think that Jesus might not help them, but he can not turn his mother down. When we stop to think about this, we are doing exactly what Satan was trying to do when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. Satan was trying to make Jesus do something against his will, implying that Jesus was less than him. No one or anything is greater than Jesus, the Heavenly Father or Holy Spirit. To infer that we can have anyone else do for us what Jesus didn’t want to do for us is going down a bad path!
If God doesn’t want to do something for us it means that he has something better. Just because your two year old child wants that knife in your hand are you going to give it to them? Not if you love them! The same is true with God. We can always count on the Lord to answer our prayers the best way for us. Even when God says no to our request, it is still an answer and the best one for us. It is amazing how adults can act like little children in regards to our dealing with God. If we don’t get the answer we want, when we want it , we pout, question his love for us, start starving ourselves, and even start looking for other ways to get what we want! This very dangerous, because if it would have been good for us God would have given it to us to begin with. It also sets a bad president for us in how we relate to the Lord.
As I shared a few days ago in another devotional that there is nothing wrong with being persistent in our prayers as Jesus was in the garden before Calvary’s cross. The persistence always has to come from humility and with a trusting heart for God to always do what is best. When we question God’s integrity or well meaning for us we play right into Satan’s hands. We will find ourselves just like Adam and Even in the garden when they questioned if God really had their best interest in mind by not letting them that they could eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
The thing we have to watch is that this type of thing can happen to any of us, and it happens so easy. And, if we need any help sinning (yes I did say this is sinning) against God by doing this, Satan and the powers of darkness will be more than happy to encourage us on to not trust the Lord, and even build up resentment towards him. We even see it with John the Baptist in Luke 7:20. John was in prison and sent a message to Jesus asking him if he was really the Messiah, or should they expect someone else. John was implying to Jesus that he had been declared the Messiah, and Jesus had not begun to run the Romans out of town! John was hoping that this might jump start Jesus into action, and action against Rome and King Herod so he could get out of prison. It didn’t work because Jesus just sent a message back to John implying I am the Messiah, but my agenda is just not yours. Then he added, “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
Many people have turned away from Jesus, because he didn’t answer their prayers the way they wanted. In fact Jesus even warns of this very thing happening in the last days of the antichrist and false prophet. He says the love for him will grow cold by many. When the going gets tough the lukewarm just go, where the tough get going or get tougher. The same is true regarding how we approach the Lord. Are we quick to bail out on him, or do we just kneel at his feet and wait for the touch of his hand?
We can find no one that will love us more than the Lord our God. Our Heavenly Father, Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ love us so much! Why would we think that we need to look to someone or something else?
Prayer: Lord we love you and trust you completely. Please forgive our immaturity and impatience at times. Please look past all this to our heart that loves you so much! We ask this in Jesus’ name.
