(John 1:45) Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote; Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
Do you ever feel like you’re not doing enough? That there is so much need in the world that you feel you can’t even begin to fill the prescriptions for everybody? Your heart overflows with compassion for the lost and hurting and your heart aches for their plight and you wish you could do something about it all? It’s like the picture of the man standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon with a shovel in his hand wondering how he’s going to plug the hole of the vast human need!
Sometimes we get so overwhelmed at all we think we must do that we get burned-out . . . quick! Then we try harder and get even more exhausted and ornery. Then the people we are trying to help seem to resent us and we get mad at them because they don’t realize all we are trying to do for them.
What’s going on? What’s the dynamic that is happening that we’re not seeing? We’re trying to be everybody’s messiah. But we fail to realize there’s only one Messiah, and that’s Jesus! Am I foretold in the law and the prophets? Am I from Nazareth? I don’t think so. So why am I trying to fix everybody when only the Lord has that right and capability? (Isa 45:21) . . . there is no other God besides Me, A just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me.
What a relief. Only one Messiah . . . and it’s not me. Yes, God wants to use me, and I am to bear much fruit (John 15:8) but I can’t be a whole orchard and feed everybody. Maybe God wants to use me a little and then someone else will do the rest (John 4:37). I’m only a part of the whole. But I will do what I can do and then I must leave the rest for God. He’ll work out the needs in everybody’s life. That way He’ll get all the glory that He so rightly deserves.
Okay, I’m dethroned . . . out of the savior business. Time to take off my messiah costume with the “M” under my shirt. Time to give everybody and everything back to the Lord and relax and enjoy the Lord working out the kinks in His own universe. Now I can really enjoy this thing called “serving the Lord!”
Louie