“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts”
Zechariah Chapter 4 verse 6b ~ (Amplified Bible)
Today I was reminded once again that I must rely on the Lord’s strength and not on my own. It seems as if there are times in our lives when there are a lot of things going on and it is easy to get a bit “out of focus”. Sure, we all know that we are to rely on God’s strength and not on our own, the Bible tells us that.
But still, if we are not careful, we can begin to carry the things of this world, and the cares of others on our own shoulders. We can begin to look at the situations of those around us with our natural eyes instead of our spiritual eyes. We can easily become overwhelmed at the depth of devastation that we might see. Whether it is physical, emotional, financial or spiritual, it is easy for us to become hopeless ourselves when we see others in these (seemingly) hopeless situations.
How then, are we able to handle what we see taking place all around us? How are we able to keep from falling headfirst ourselves into the hopelessness that we desire to rescue others from? How will we ever be able to minister hope and healing into the hearts and lives of others if we, ourselves are being brought down by the circumstances of our own lives?
They may not always show it, but you can be assured that others are always watching you and how you live. They watch, and they wait. They watch, and they wait to see if your actions and your words match up. This at times, can be quite disconcerting. I cannot help but wonder if Jesus ever felt this way. He always had eyes upon Him, and they were not always eyes that were filled with grace.
So, what did Jesus do? He went to His Father. He made the time to stop what He was doing and converse with His Father about what it was that was going on. It didn’t matter what it was, either something going on around Him, or something going on inside of Him. Either way, He spoke to His Father about it. He got His eyes off of His circumstances, and onto to His Father. This is where He found His peace, His reassurance, and His comfort. This is where He was reminded once again that if His Father was for Him, who could be against Him? This is where He was reminded that He was not alone and that His Father was with Him. This is the place where He came away knowing that He could fully rely on the power of His Father’s Spirit.
This is what we must do, also. We must focus our attention on Jesus. We must pour out our concerns to Him and we must listen to what it is that He is saying to us. He speaks to each one of us, and He speaks to each of us in a way that He knows we will understand. We must do this, because this is the only place where we will come away knowing that we can only rely on His Spirit, and not on our own might or on our own power. He will remind us that we are too small to handle the things of this world on our own, but that He is not. His ways are much higher than our ways, the Word says so. He knows and understands things in a whole different way than we do. He is mighty in power and He holds a wealth of wisdom. He will show us the way by His Spirit. He will lead us in a way that we could never have seen on our own. He will give us the courage to face not only our own circumstances, but to also be able to help others in theirs.
If you are in a place today that is causing you to be tired and frustrated, perhaps you are trying to do things in your own strength. Perhaps you are looking at the things around you through your own natural eyes. Perhaps you are trying to figure things out in your own wisdom, or trying to “carry” things in your own power. My hope in writing this is that you will once again be reminded to see things through the eyes of Jesus, and to rely on His Spirit. We must rely on His wisdom and not on our own. We must trust Him to carry the concerns of our hearts in His power and not with ours. He will lead us and He will guide us and He will accomplish things by His Spirit that we never, ever thought were possible.
May 4, 2011
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