As They Went...

This morning's messages was on being called by God, and used Luke 17:11-19. This is when Jesus is approached by 10 lepers desiring to be cleansed. He orders them to present themselves to the priest. That's it. No drawing in the sand, no mud on the eyes, no touching of his cloak, just sending them away. "AS THEY WENT they were cleansed" (Verse 14). Only the Samaritan came running back to thank Jesus.

The sermon took one direction for the remainder of our time, but my focus rested on the words "as they went". Oh, how true! What would have happened if they ignored what Jesus said and just sat down? Probably nothing. They had to obey and go. They had to do. How often do we pray and pray and pray and ask and ask and ask and then be still. Although there are many times for this, it is not for all times. Sometimes we need to act out our faith for the blessings to come.

I've been stuck in a cycle in my life where everything seems to be in a rut. A job rut. A dating rut. Spiritual life rut. For a couple years I prayed for God to heal my relationships and to give me guidance as to what to do for a career. In all honesty I just needed to be pulled out of this pit that was my life. And I prayed and prayed and prayed. Nothing changed. But I know God hears, for "if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him" (1 John 5:15). I believe He heard every single time I went to Him. But why wasn't anything happening?

Nothing happened because I didn't do anything. God gave me wisdom and advice. He comforted me. He encouraged me. He extended his beautiful and strong hand into the pit, but I laid there looking at it, too afraid to grasp it and climb out, climb to Him.

So this was the situation. For two years I did nothing but be miserable in the rut of my life, wondering why God hadn't pulled me out. But God was still working on me. He worked through sermons, specifically those from Mark Driscoll, to get me out of a relationship that held me down. Not that it was the fault of the young woman who happens to be a wonderful and beautiful person, but the relationship basically held me hostage. God also presented opportunities for a new career. He showed me the M.A. degree that I had been searching for. And what happened? I stood up. I walked towards God's sovereign hand, ended the relationship, applied for grad school, and slowly, using God's own loving arms, climbed out of that pit.

We can't save ourselves. We need God. But God isn't going to do everything for us. We need to live out our faith and follow God. Things won't always be easy, but He will be with us and take care of us.



Below is a a video for "How He Loves", which my church performed this morning. This is the official music video from David Crowder* Band. Unfortunately, EMI won't let the embedding work, but it'll give you the link over to the YouTube page.