Desperation--Seeing Others Like Christ Did

Saints, 

Daniel Henderson shared in his most recent devotional, “Until we become desperate, we seldom pray with passion and perseverance."

Today, let’s look at a passage in Scripture which describes Jesus seeing people. He sees their need. He feels compassion. He acts.

Before we begin, please let me say that we really must approach this subject today with honesty and humility. This is a hard subject because it can hurt a little (or a lot).  Basically, we will see how Jesus looks at people and then we will contrast that with how we look at people. We will see Jesus was driven by the father’s love to compassion. He saw the real need. He then was driven by the Father’s love to action, but not action as we might assume. He was driven to prayer and instructed us to pray. Yes, prayer. I am convinced now more than ever that PRAYER IS THE WORK! (I used caps because I am shouting). Brothers and sisters, prayer is the work. Simply put, prayer is what we need to do. Sometimes our mindset is, “We will do everything but prayer, or, “We will do everything else and then as a last resort, we will pray.” The battle is not in the physical realm. Even so, we forget this. We sometimes focus completely and only on the physical. When we focus only on the physical realm, we can miss God.

Jesus, please open our eyes to Your truth. May we be compelled to compassion, driven to prayer, and focused on Your kingdom.

Matthew 9:35-38

³⁵ Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Again, Jesus saw the crowds--He saw people. He had compassion. He saw the reality of the situation—the spiritual reality, the eternal reality. What did He apparently overlook?

Well, He did not see people who wore the wrong clothes. He did not see people who had tattoos. He did not see people who needed to adjust their demeanor so that He could love them. He did not see people with the wrong skin color or with a funny accent. No, He saw them.  He saw them as they were and loved them as they were. Here lies a problem for us. Sometimes we see tattoos. Sometimes we smell dirt. Sometimes we see the wrong kind of clothes. Sometimes we see skin color. Sometimes we allow a different accent to become a barrier. Brothers and sisters we must see like Jesus does.

Our purpose as a Christ-follower is not to help people change their dress or make sure they don’t get tattoos. No, our purpose is to love people right where they are, put our arms around them in their stench and filth, just like Jesus did and help them go where? We are to help them go toward Jesus. We help them to know the one and only true God and Jesus whom He sent (John 17:3). Sometimes we forget this. Sometimes we push them away—even away from church where they should be able to meet Jesus, because of clothing, or hygiene, or tattoos, or you fill in the blank.

Let me ask you something. If Jesus were to come to earth right now to visit, where would He be? Would He be in our churches? I think He would be where people needed Him. He would be with the hurting, diseased, drifting-through-life people, just like He was when He first visited the earth physically.

Okay, if this is true, why don’t we go to the same people that Jesus would go to? Instead we tend to flock to people just like us--people who make the same kind of money we do, people who look, smell, talk, and act like us, even people, who avoid the same kinds of sins like us. Sometimes this happens in our churches. I submit to you when we act this way in the church we are more like a country club than we are like the Bride of Christ—the true church. The church has a very clear mission: Make disciples and be Jesus’ witnesses locally and globally.

So, what did Jesus do with His compassion for these people? He acted. He called His disciples (and us) to pray to the Father for more workers. Please realize that if you pray this prayer as Jesus instructed with sincerity, you very likely will become one of those workers for which you are praying.

Brothers and sisters, we do not have time to focus on clothes and tattoos. People are deceived by the enemy. The battle is spiritual. We must pray and love them toward Christ, not push them away from Christ with rules—country club rules.

So, what does desperation have to do with this devotional? Desperation will come when we see the real battle raging around us. We must see like Jesus did. We must see the real spiritual battle all around us. We must know that prayer can make a difference. We must love people. We must believe God.  We must have desperation for God to move in hearts and minds—all to His glory, yes, desperation. I submit to you, that if we are not desperate, it is because we think we are doing okay and that we really don’t need God.

I know this can hurt—it hurt me. Please take this to the Father if it did hurt. 

Father, forgive us for what we have done with your church. Please cleanse us from anything that is not from You. Make us; even compel us to love like Jesus did. Help us to see like Jesus did. God, please show us to pray as Jesus instructed. We ask this in Jesus Holy name and for your kingdom, Amen.  
   

Compelled to pray and desperate for God, Steve