The Place of Desperation

A little while ago, I was talking to a friend of mine and recalling the two weeks of intense pain I experienced back in the fall. As I told the story, I remembered how I laid on the couch curled up in a ball with worship music right by my ear. Then the miracle happened. I have tried a few times to explain it, and keep falling short of words, so I looked at my friend and simply said, "I don't know how else to explain it, but it was like Jesus was right there with me. Ever since, He is just the most beautiful thing. Like just, SO beautiful. If I had to do those two weeks over again, just to experience that, I would." 

And I have come to see something clearly. Jesus comes to those who have reached desperation. He comes to those who have nothing left to give or to bring. That is where He wants us. In the words of Brother Yun, "It is not great men who change the world, but weak men in the hands of a great God." 

I read Luke 7 and see a mother aching with grief over her dead son. Jesus draws near, sees her desperation, and performs a miracle. In Mark 6, I see Jesus withdrawing to a desert place for a rest. But as He is leaving, people see Him and come running. I mean that's desperation. To drop everything and go chasing after a man disappearing in a ship? That means someone was determined and like I said, desperate. But then Jesus... Scripture says, "He was moved with compassion, because they were like sheep without a shepherd." (vs.34) So He begins to teach them. Not just a bit to satisfy them and get them out of His hair, but according to verse 25, many things - MANY things! He honoured their hunger for spiritual truth. He read the desperation in their souls, and He answered abundantly. 

And that is the life of the person desperate enough to run after God. The person who goes to sit at His well spring, when spiritual life seems bone dry. The person crazy enough to knock in faith on a door that appears to be bolted shut. The person who praises an unseen God, when the plan doesn't seem to be making any sense. The person who marches around the walls of his Jericho, until his God knocks them down. 

Are you desperate enough to find Him? He is ready and waiting as always, but how much do you want Him? How much do you think you need Him? He comes to the broken-hearted, the oppressed, the forgotten, the caught-deep-in-sin kinds of people. The ones who hang their head in shame at the list of deeds they have wracked up. But He never pushes His way into a life that doesn't want Him. Never once did He impose himself upon the performers, the do-it-perfecters, the I-have-it-altogether ones. Did He come for them? Oh yes He did, but He waits for them to see their true need. He waits for them to call on Him, and then He comes - comes in all His great and beautiful abundance.

In conclusion, we must see how lost we are. We must see how broken we are. We must see how impossible we are. We must see how absolutely unable we are. And then God will move. When we come with a simple word and call out to Him in childlike faith, He will answer - He will do it. ❤️