"A man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and
saying, 'Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is
very ill; ... I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not
cure him. ' And Jesus answered and said ... 'Bring him here to Me"
Matthew 17:14-17
In life there are problems that I call "God problems." These are
not problems with God, but problems only God can handle. God
problems are those that cannot be fixed with your checkbook,
education or influence. These problems are outside of the control
of human beings and lie squarely within God's sovereign
jurisdiction. They stop us in our tracks and cause us to soberly
assess our associations and situation in life. They bring us face
to face with our insufficiency and our need for God's sufficiency.
When we face a God problem we discover what is really important
in life.
These problems are not designed to stop us from making
progress in life, but to reveal our dependency on God for
everything in life. God wants to reveal something to you and your
problem may be the vehicle He is using to do it.
Throughout the Gospel people sought Jesus to do what no one else
could do. In Matthew 17:14-1 7, a father had a son who was
demon-possessed and no one else was able to help him, including
Jesus' disciples. Finally, the father encounters Jesus. Jesus,
looking at this seemingly impossible and long term situation,
tells the father to, "Bring him to Me". Jesus did in a moment
what others could not do!
In another situation, the disciples faced a seemingly impossible
task of feeding over 5000 men (not including the women and
children) with two fish and five loaves of bread. After taking
inventory of the situation, Jesus, speaking of the fish and loaves,
tells the disciples to, "Bring them here to me." Having placed
their impossible situation in the hands of Jesus, the peoples'
insufficiency was transformed into over flowing sufficiency. So
much so, that there were 12 baskets full of leftover after
everyone had eaten their fill.
Too often, God is the last stop in our search for help. We don't
have to lose everything before we begin to seek Him. God is not
intimidated by what we are dealing with. We must stop trying to
fix our problem on our own and seek God for our deliverance.
Let's be honest, if we could fix it, it would have been fixed by
now. This is a "God Problem", or a "problem for God". Don't
mistake your trusting people with trusting God. When God showed
up, deliverance quickly followed.
I want to challenge you. Set aside some time in the morning,
evening, on your lunch break or when you are lying in bed, and
seek out God's presence. Block out your situation and focus on
God's promises. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus promised, "Come to
Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, .... 'For My yoke is
easy and My burden is light'." This offer still stands for those
who will seek Him! No matter ho long you had the problem. NO
matter how big it is. Whatever it is, God still says to -
"Bring it to Me!"
