Feb 21, 2018 – Mark 9
"O unbelieving generation," Jesus replied.
"How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me." Mark 9:19
Belief is not just in
Jesus doing the work for us, but in Jesus doing the work through us.
Dependence is destroying our nation – but not in how you
might think.
We take pride in America that we are an independent
nation. People “pull up their bootstraps”
and get to work, conquering every obstacle, and overcoming every
challenge. We don’t want to be a burden
to anyone, and try to take care of our own.
You would never call Americans a dependent people.
But take a closer look.
Those independent Americans are the same ones who depend on calculators
or software to balance their checkbooks.
It’s the same group who depend on mechanics to fix their cars, need help
from accountants for their taxes, trust the doctors to tell them how to get
healthy, need a repairman to do their house repairs, and need teachers to help
raise their kids.
You might call that leveraging specialists, but it gets far
worse. Nowadays, a majority of Americans
are leveraging the government to help support them in some way. Far too many adults have returned to their
parents’ homes to live. You can see many
adults needing their kids to help them muddle through life, and our national
debt is skyrocketing as we depend on other nations to help us out.
Dependence is not wrong – in fact, we ALL are dependent on
God to live every day of our lives. But
when dependence becomes laziness or abdication of our effort, it becomes an
abuse instead of a character quality.
Jesus came down from the mountain where He had just been
transfigured, and there’s an argument between a man and the disciples about why
they couldn’t heal the man’s boy. And
when it’s brought to Jesus’ attention, he gets frustrated with them. Why is that?
Many have different opinions, but is it possible the disciples and this
father had become dependent on Jesus doing everything for them, instead of
allowing Jesus to work through them?
They had power – Jesus had already put His power on them some time
earlier – but they didn’t have faith in that power. Their faith was only in Jesus doing all the
work, not in Jesus working through them.
Maybe that’s why Jesus is frustrated.
They preferred to be dependent on someone else doing the work instead of
getting on their knees and praying for God to work through them.
Too often, that’s still the case today. We have the Spirit with us, and the power in
us, but still want to avoid the work and prayer needed for Jesus to work
through us. We’d rather Jesus just take
care of it without us. Or that Jesus
wouldn’t require us to change (repent) so that we could be His vessel to
work. If it frustrated Jesus then, there’s
a good chance He is still frustrated now!
So if you’re laying around waiting for Jesus to fix it, stop
that! Get on your knees, or get off the
couch, and do something. STAY DEPENDENT –
but believe in Jesus to work through you too!
You might just discover many ways God has already equipped you to do
incredible things – and find yourself less dependent on the world, and more
dependent on Him!
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