Home » 2016 » December

Monthly Archives: December 2016

A Message found in Christian Care Ministry: Well Worth Reading (No author listed)

Posted on by | Leave a comment

Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved,
for you are the one I praise.
-Jeremiah 17:14
Jeremiah is acknowledging something that many of us hesitate to acknowledge, really several things. He’s acknowledging that he needs healing and salvation. He acknowledges that God is able to heal and save and he acknowledges that God is the only one who can heal and save. And lastly, He praises God for His power to heal and save.

Many of us like to pick some aspect of the above to conveniently ignore. Either we don’t want to acknowledge our need for healing and salvation or we want to turn to something other than God to do it. Or, say we acknowledge our need and His ability, but after the salvation has been accomplished, we want to sweep it under a wrong, to hide our past shames instead of praising the one who absolved us of our iniquities and healed our wounds.

I, for one, have no problem admitting my need and would certainly give verbal credence to the fact that Jesus is the only one who can save me. But somewhere in between, I often get caught up attempting my own sort of self-salvation. I want to exhaust all my options, find my very own Pinterest-worthy DIY salvation. But no dead man has yet to bring himself back to life and despite all my attempts, I too wind up a failure at saving myself from myself. I need Jesus. I have to have Him. And yet, after all that, you can usually find me playing compare and contrast at the end of the day to minimize what Jesus has done for me instead of recognizing the depth of my depravity and the greatness of His salvation. After all, I may be a sinner who needed salvation but I didn’t need it quite as bad as the people next door.

So I have to fight against this. I have to fight against trying to parent out of my own righteousness instead of leaning on the strength and grace of Jesus to help me patiently raise my kids. I have to fight against trying to impress with others with my own CV instead of humbly testifying of my brokenness and Christ’s powerful work of healing in my life. And I have fight against the urge to praise Him quietly when I should be making a joyful, boastful, off-key noise wherever I go about the sacrifice the Lamb of God became on my behalf.

You may need to fight to see your need. Maybe your sin isn’t as obvious to you as mine is to me. Maybe Satan has helped you disguise it and hide it even from your own heart so that it’s difficult to see or feel your need of Jesus Christ. Maybe you struggle with confessing that Jesus really truly is the only thing that can save you. Maybe you want to say it’s Jesus + something else that heals and restores you. Take time today to think through what your habits say about what you really believe about your salvation. Do you like to believe you don’t need Him? Or that He isn’t strong enough to do what needs to be done for you? Or that it takes something a little more than what He alone can offer? Or do you just not want to celebrate being lost but now found because it makes you come face to face yet again with the fact that you cut and ran in the first place? Whatever your struggle is, take time to face it honestly and confess before God your failure to fully acknowledge your need of His powerful and perfect healing. And then praise Him for the ever-flowing flood of forgiveness and grace that your Father pours into your cracks and wounds.