When the Worlds Falls, Stay with Me

It’s funny that frequently when there is a problem in my life, I walk away from God. 

My present state of health discourages me. Headlines in the news disheartens me. Entertainment and music become my means of escape from the difficulties of life. 

But What did God make unclear that we are meant to rely on Him for everything? 

If God is God, being all sufficient that He is, then to remain in Him is the safest place for a person to be. 

What irony to see the disciples who urge Jesus to send the masses of people who sat to listen to Jesus away so they can feed themselves. 

Thankfully, Jesus refuses them (Matthew 14:15). Jesus confounds them even more when He says: 

“They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” (‭Matthew‬ ‭14‬:‭16‬ NKJV)

They found five loaves and two fish, but they saw that wasn’t going to sustain a crowd of 5000 men (this number did not include the women and children who were with them). Veins rose from their foreheads as the crowd grew restless.

It’s like the disciples all wore baseball caps that day that they could not see over the bill of their caps.

The answer is right in front of you! 

Jesus performs a miracle where not only feeds everyone there but also fills 12 baskets of leftovers!

God demonstrates His inexhaustible power that magnificently floored human independence. There was no way that any man could feat to feed those countless thousands instantaneously. Stretching a fish lunch would be a joke. 

Jesus did this supernatural wonder for one important reason: 

“I am all sufficient. Stay with Me.” 

At wake of the ills of the world, the failures of man, the decline of health, the ear of disaster, the sense of hopelessness, you can either turn for an escape, turn on others or turn to Jesus. 

If you’re hungry and have no food, don’t leave me to find food. Didn’t I tell you: 

“do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭25-26‬ NKJV)”

At your want to desert Me to bring meaning and satisfaction in your life, did you hear: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst (John‬ ‭6‬:‭35‬ NKJV)”!!!

When the sky folds and when people turn on each other, don’t run for a solace, “STAY WITH ME”! Stay with Christ. 

“Christ is enough for me. Christ is enough for me. Everything I need is in You. Everything I need” (“Christ is Enough” -Hillsong Worship). 

Listen to the song and let it be an anthem to you. There isn’t a resort outside of Christ. 

He is everything you need. He is everything you want. I just need to change the way I think and just “taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! (‭Psalms‬ ‭34‬:‭8‬ NKJV)”

Look at Him and find that He is the river and you’re the tree. Sink your roots in the bank. Stay with Him. Your leaves won’t wither; in fact, you will prosper and live to produce what you couldn’t think was able to come out of you (See Psalms 1:3). 

Jesus is everything you need. There is no one like Our God! 

Our God by Chris Tomlin

God is passionate for His glory to shown on the earth. He desires that the earth look to Him and accredit Him for their existence, their success, their capabilities, their strength – their everything pretty much.

The Lord thunders His own greatness in Isaiah 45:5-7:

“I am the Lord, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other.”

Chris Tomlin’s song “Our God” really grabs you by the shoulders and rattles you to remind us that “Our God is greater”. This song touch me personally when I was under a stockpile of stress. I was in over my head with assignment deadlines and on top of that I was under the weather.

Thank God for Pandora. I had my playlist on and then this song faded in:

Water you turned into wine, opened the eyes of the blind there’s no one like you, none like You!
Into the darkness you shine out of the ashes we rise there’s no one like you none like You!

The problems around me grew strangely dim as I listened intently to the song. Then the chorus rolled in:

Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other.
Our God is Healer, Awesome in Power, Our God! Our God!

I felt like an idiot for a brief instant. I thought: “I’ve been adopted by the God who is all awesome in power and I am here moaning in anxiety?”

Romans 8:31 rung loudly in my soul: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Sounds very familiar to the bridge of the song doesn’t it?

And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us.
And if our God is with us, then what could stand against.
And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us.
And if our God is with us, then what could stand against.
What could stand against.

God is passionate about exerting His power to us so we can see and confess His awesomeness. God delights in these situations, because it’s an opportunity for us to experience His excellent, everlasting strength when we call on Him for help.

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. (2 Chronicles 16:9 NKJV).

(Read about God’s glory and our prayers: Giving God Burdens, Your Obedience, His Glory)

Our God is greater than all and fill in the blank. I’m so grateful that God has blessed us with songs like these that awake our soul to turn our eyes upon God and trust in Him.

If you haven’t heard the song yet, check it out:

The Want For Escape

When we are confronted with a personal issue, more often than not its sin, there is this natural want to escape from it. 

To get away. Just not worry about it.

Cain ran from God because he did not want to be accounted for killing his brother. We have Jonah traveling entirely opposite from God’s sovereign direction for Jonah to preach to his enemies at Nineveh.

We cannot hide. Especially if it is sin. God clearly stated that will “bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14 NKJV). 

God found Cain as he ran from the scene of the crime. He exposed him, exclaiming to Cain, “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10 NKJV). Then Cain faced his judgment.

God forced Jonah to go to Nineveh with a fierce storm and a whale.*

Truth is you can’t run from confrontation. All of us need to learn that we need to run through them.

Even Jesus sought an escape from His mission to suffer and die. This act was necessarily for all of us.

Jesus revealed his humanity when He wrestled with the thoughts of the immense suffering that waited for Him. He even pleaded with Father God asking, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42 NKJV). 

We are human. Confrontation honestly is uncomfortable. Here are some things to consider when faced with confrontation.

1. The Confrontation could possibly be God’s divine fingers, pointing out our sin or pointing us to do the right thing. 

We saw God confronted Cain with his sin in killing his brother. God also confronted Jonah to do the right thing which was to go to Nineveh.

When we are confronted with sin, we need to remember that He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13 NKJV). 

“For whom the Lord loves He chastens…” (Hebrews 12:6 NKJV). We are God’s children, therefore he will confront us on our wrong and discipline us.

We need to always do the right thing because we have to as Christ’s followers. God says its sin to not do what you know you ought to do:

“Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17 NKJV)

When confronted, we need to always do the right thing.  (Check out Doing Good Because You Have To)

2. Whenever confronted, see God’s desire in the matter. 

God has called us to “be imitators of God as dear children” (Ephesians 5:1 NKJV). He desires that we “be conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29 NKJV).  God will even use trials and circumstances to shape you into His desired image.

Know also that God wants us to be a better person. As He molds us, especially in undelightful confrontations, it’s always for your good. As you endure confrontations, remember that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6 NKJV). 

3. Always depend on God’s strength. 

Remember Mary, Jesus’ mother. Here she is minding her own business, when she is suddenly approached face to face with an Angel whom declares her assignment to carry the Son of God. Talk about confrontation!

When Mary listed the impossibilities, the angel responded boldly, “For with God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37 NKJV). 

“If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small” (Proverbs 24:10 NKJV). 

You can’t afford to shrink and hide from your problems when they confront you. That weakens you.

Any confrontation you face, you can always bank on God to see you through it. Cast all your anxiety upon Christ because He cares for you**.

Mary understood she could make it through this confrontation that included incredible responsibility and supernatural elements only on God’s strength.

She gave the right answer for the angel. “Then Mary said, ‘Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word’ (Luke 1: 38 NKJV). 

You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength, even in confrontations.*** Trust in Him.

*Jonah 1

**1 Peter 5:7: “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”

***Philippians 4:13:  ^“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

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Fight the urge to quit and trust in Jesus (Luke 1:37)

I Need You = Jesus

Today, my twin brother and I will be hosting my father’s TV program that broadcasts over Antigua every Thursday. Too be honest with you: last week was very successful. We had a great response. So the temptation I’m having is going there tomorrow and hit out of the ballpark again. Only without God’s strength.

In making myself vulnerable for you, it’s easy for me to rely on myself than consult the Lord for help. I mean you only call Him when things go bad right?

Samson was Public Enemy No.#1 among the Philistines. Whenever he went against them, it resulted with massive casualties (he killed 1,000 men with a donkey’s jawbone!). But there came Delilah.

After three failing tries, Delilah finally enticed Samson to reveal his secret which gave him his strength (which was not his hair, but it was the promise not to cut it). The Philistines showed up again to take out Samson, and Samson said to himself, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. (Judges 16:20 NKJV)

You may feel you can do it on your own, but the truth is you are only fooling yourself. What may seem like the most simplest of tasks can spiral into an overwhelming mess.

Truth is we need Jesus – every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year. Jesus said,“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5 NKJV)

We need Him. I can go to the broadcast, and I choke, or we could be driving there and my tire blows out! Life is so blinded from us! But Jesus is El Roi: The God Who Sees!!!

We need Him more than we can imagine.

Washer Machine

Have you ever felt like life treated you as if you were in the turn cycle of your washer machine?

I don’t know–but to me, see life seems to bring me through the same trials over again and over again. And like a dog to its vomit, I repeat the same mistakes.

The one mistake I commit a lot is trying to run things on my own strength. At the peak of my game, I feel like Superman with the wind in his back: nothing can’t withhold me from getting the job done.

Then a computer crashes. Help disappear. Batteries die. Those expectations you felt seemed so belittled, now are casting shadows over you.

Now the “S” on the chest doesn’t seem so super anymore.

Life doesn’t always gives us the wind to let our capes bask in the air. We all come to a point where we are as broken cups: we cannot give as much as we could if we were whole.

Jesus promised,“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38 NKJV).

Face it. We’re all human. We all empty ourselves and lack the strength to meet the demands that are called upon us.

But Jesus wants to fill us with Himself. In Him we have:

-Strength in weakness: And He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9 NKJV)

-Rest in difficulty: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28 NKJV)

-Company in loneliness: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4 NKJV)

-Guidance in uncertainty: I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. (Psalm 32:8 NKJV)

It has been said God cannot fill an empty vessel when he is full of himself.

Don’t wait to get to the pit of the trial to call on Jesus. At the very start, let the pride go now and ask him for help. It will save you time in the washer.