Unknown Needs, Known Saviour
By Rebekah Branson
Have you felt it at all lately, a subtle (or maybe not subtle at all) shift in your relationship with God?
For several days, I have been trying to quantify this dismal experience. Is it apathy? It can contain elements of that. Is it lethargy? Somewhat. What about confusion, exhaustion, not taking much time for God, or maybe just having eyes on myself too much? Well, yes. All of these things can create a shift away from life-giving abiding in God’s presence. And probably the most difficult part is, because this shift is so subtle, it is often difficult to pinpoint the precise reason for it so that it can be remediated.
That is usually the goal: identify issues as quickly as possible, fix them as quickly as possible, move on. The human tendency is to sweep past our sins and flaws, to dwell on them as little as we can. I had never noticed this until I read the lovely Kristine Amundrud’s words:
“…Wiping the slate clean and starting over was key to me moving on. Can we just forget this ever happened? Too often we want to run from the very work God is asking us to do. He was asking me to sit in the waiting room with him, the place void of a quick erase or redo. The lessons God wants to teach us are seldom quick, or found in perfectly wrapped boxes.”
God does not point out issues in our lives to make us feel miserable, but so He can walk us through them. And this is the point which is easily missed; our very failure (specifically here, drifting from closeness with God) which makes us slink away into self-reliance and trying to tidy ourselves up, is actually the point of need which God would use to draw us to Himself.
Oswald Chambers writes, “The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount produces a sense of despair in the natural man–exactly what Jesus means for it to do. As long as we have some self-righteous idea that we can carry out our Lord’s teaching, God will allow us to continue until we expose our own ignorance by stumbling over some obstacle in our way. Only then are we willing to come to Him as paupers and receive from Him. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit…”
This is the first principle in the kingdom of God. The underlying foundation of Jesus Christ’s kingdom is poverty, not possessions; not making decisions for Jesus, but having such a sense of absolute futility that we finally admit, “Lord, I cannot even begin to do it.” Then Jesus says, “Blessed are you…” (Matthew 5:11).
The feeling or reality of drifting from closeness with God, and the ensuing lack of peace, clarity, and joy, is not new to God’s people. Israel spent plenty of their history in exile, a place of discomfort that caused them to look up and realize that things were not right in their hearts and in their relationships with God. In the book of Ezekiel, the tribes of Israel had already been sent into exile, and as his book goes on, Jerusalem is besieged and Judah is taken into captivity. In this dismal, unideal, discouraging setting, God gives Ezekiel a unique vision.
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And He led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD.”
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.”
(Ezekiel 37:1-14, ESV).
It is incredible that in the Israelites’ place of despair and exile, God reaches out to them, simply because of who He is. He is “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ps 86:15, ESV). God uses His messenger, Ezekiel, to show Israel that He can bring life out of dead places with His Spirit.
Not only in the Old Testament do we see examples of spiritual drift. Revelation 2 & 3 contains God’s messages for each of the seven ancient churches scattered throughout Asia Minor, one of which seems particularly relevant.
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’”
From outward appearances, the church at Ephesus had their spiritual walk together. They were quick to call out evil, test false teachers, and endure for the name of Jesus without becoming weary. But all was not well, as the Spirit’s words chillingly attest; “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Rev 2:4, NASB). They had the outer workings of the Christian life, it seems, but it was empty.
I was recently struck by this verse. I had always taken it to mean the Ephesian church had their first love for Christ, their initial passion for Jesus when they had come to truly know Him, but they had left that love and gone cold. But it took on a new meaning a few days ago (I think God may have put this idea in my head): the Ephesians had left the most central, incomparable love of their life, Jesus, not just their previous level of love for Him. Looking into the Greek word for “first” used in this verse, πρώτην (prōtēn), I discovered that it means “first, before, principal, most important.” I do not know enough about Greek grammar to determine whether this is the way prōtēn is being used here, but it is an interesting thought nonetheless.
What the Ephesian church needed was to repent, to return to Jesus Christ Himself. Revelation 3 does not specify what “works” they needed to do, but they could not find restoration through works alone – Jesus was the only one who could show them how they had strayed and by His power keep them walking close to Him.
The point I am trying to underscore is this: Jesus is the one who can save us in our neediness and fulfill our deepest needs. Because our deepest need is to be in deep relationship with the Lord Jesus.
“This poor man called out, and the LORD heard him; He saved him from all his troubles” (Psalm 34:6).
“I waited patiently for the LORD; and He reached down to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the mud; And He set my feet on a rock, making my footsteps firm” (Psalm 40:1-2).
Wherever we are today, Jesus’ invitation to repent and return is extended to us. If you are struggling with apathy/exhaustion/lethargy/disappointment/failure/sin/guilt/fill in the blank and your closeness and passion for God is deadened, I want to invite you to recognize Jesus, wherever you are. Take this moment to cry out. Just be honest with God, even if you don’t even know what it is you need. I don’t know if you need to pause and rest, take action of some kind, or maybe forgive someone. I don’t know what is going on in your life or what your needs are—and maybe you don't know either. But the point is, Jesus does know, and He has the answers and He has you. I pray you will have eyes for Him, because He will answer.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
Greetings, I'm REBEKAH BRANSON. You may often find me puzzling—over life, God, jigsaws, and the punch line for the next pun, that is. I am currently studying the Bible at Clearwater College. In between, I love spending time with people, learning new things, counting the gifts God has given in my life, and being outside.
Hosea 6:1-3 "Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. 3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth."
