Pastor Gary Stebbins, COTR- Melbourne, March 30, 2010 .
We have all heard people say that “God is a crutch to those who are weak.” For many Christians when they hear this, the hair on the back of their neck bristles and they immediately want to defend their belief in God. “After all, just because I believe in God, that does not mean that I am a weak!” However, in one way, the statement is quite true. For those who recognize that their own strength, wisdom, and resolve are not enough turn to God. They come to the end of themselves and recognize their need for God.
To take it a step further, it is often desperation in the human heart that causes someone to cry out to God in prayer. Oswald Chambers says it like this, “It is not cowardly to pray when we are at our wits’ end; it is the only way to get in touch with reality. As long as we are self-sufficient and complacent, we don’t need to ask God for anything; we don’t want Him. It is only when we know we are powerless that we are prepared to listen to Jesus Christ and to do what He says.”
Are you experiencing difficulties in your life; does what is happening in the world today scare you? These are great reasons to turn to God in prayer.
Remember, prayer is not so much about getting something from God, as much as it is getting to know God. Prayer is the food that nourishes the life of God that is within us. We must pray if we want our relationship with God to flourish.
Again, in the words of Oswald Chambers, Christians “need to concentrate more on how prayer changes us and less on how it changes things. Prayer is getting ourselves attuned to God, not getting God attuned to us. It is developing the life of God in us, not self-development.”
As God said to Paul the Apostle, “my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Paul’s response to God’s Word, “therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
I am not ashamed to say, “I am weak and therefore I need God.” In my weakness I pray and seek the face of my God. Prayer is a vehicle through which I get to know God and the power of His life that lives within me. Prayer brings me into alignment with God’s will and releases the provision of heaven for my life.
When I am weak, I PRAY, and He proves Himself strong. What about you?
To take it a step further, it is often desperation in the human heart that causes someone to cry out to God in prayer. Oswald Chambers says it like this, “It is not cowardly to pray when we are at our wits’ end; it is the only way to get in touch with reality. As long as we are self-sufficient and complacent, we don’t need to ask God for anything; we don’t want Him. It is only when we know we are powerless that we are prepared to listen to Jesus Christ and to do what He says.”
Are you experiencing difficulties in your life; does what is happening in the world today scare you? These are great reasons to turn to God in prayer.
Remember, prayer is not so much about getting something from God, as much as it is getting to know God. Prayer is the food that nourishes the life of God that is within us. We must pray if we want our relationship with God to flourish.
Again, in the words of Oswald Chambers, Christians “need to concentrate more on how prayer changes us and less on how it changes things. Prayer is getting ourselves attuned to God, not getting God attuned to us. It is developing the life of God in us, not self-development.”
As God said to Paul the Apostle, “my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Paul’s response to God’s Word, “therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
I am not ashamed to say, “I am weak and therefore I need God.” In my weakness I pray and seek the face of my God. Prayer is a vehicle through which I get to know God and the power of His life that lives within me. Prayer brings me into alignment with God’s will and releases the provision of heaven for my life.
When I am weak, I PRAY, and He proves Himself strong. What about you?
i really like this. one thing, as believers we need to be diligently on our guards against is a RELIGIOUS spirit. it puts us in a position where His truth can be harder to penetrate than those who DO say He is a crutch. one of the first things that happens when we get too religious is that we forget what WE were like sans Jesus. "God is a crutch for those who are weak" ill be the first to admit i did the same thing. pride is not only rooted in fear of what we feel we might become, but also, of what we fear we may already be.
ReplyDeleteeverything in the word of God goes exactly the opposite of what our willful, selfish, bratty
flesh nature demands. to willingly subjugate it to line up with His Word takes great strength. for one, it means going in a direction that is the total opposite of everything, that, before Jesus entered the picture, weve done our whole lives.
i thank God for the people who WERENT afraid
to show how, in that THEY were weak, HE is strong. this is some really, really good stuff, pastor gary