Just Shut Up and Say Yes

I find that it is so much easier to give help than to receive help. I guess it's just pride when you think about it. Americans, in particular, have a driving sense if individuality and this often causes us to rebuff attempts by others to get involved in our lives. What a crummy way to live! It just perpetuates the cycle of isolation that we sugarcoat and call "independence." Like it or not, we were designed to need each other - we have a need to give and a need to receive.

We've been blessed by a tight circle of friends and family who are quick to surround us with love and support. At times it's very hard to step out of the way and let them minister to us. As one precious friend advised, "Just shut up and say yes." Tough love, I tell ya. Refusing help denies another person the opportunity to be obedient to God's command to love one another.

Too many times we not only push away friends' offers of help, we also decline God's offer of help. Perhaps we think we will bother Him or that He's got more important universe-type things to do, or we don't really believe deep down that He can do anything. I've just started a study called Breaking Free by Beth Moore and the key verses are Isaiah 61:1-3:

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.

These are the verses Jesus read and stated he had fulfilled (Luke 4:21). That's some help we all need and it's being offered freely by the God of the universe. Nashbabe gave me a book called The Wounded Woman by Dr Steve Stephens and Pam Vredevelt and it quoted those verses and followed with this conversational rewording (imagine Jesus speaking those verses this way):

I have good news for you. I am with you. I want to comfort you and heal your broken heart. At this very moment, I am pushing back hell and fighting your battles for you. I am avenging you. Before long you will experience the spoils of victory.

I see all the details. You deeply grieve your losses, and your grief is valid. I want to fellowship with you in your suffering. Come to Me. Allow My Spirit to touch your wounds. I promise you: I will replace your devastation and despair with My Spirit of gladness and joy. This isn't something you can do. It is something I will accomplish for you.

Wow. I just need to rest in Him because it's something He will accomplish for me. Chuck independence right out the window because I cannot do this for myself. I wasn't designed to. I just need to shut up and say yes.

Value of Life

Even prior to the events of last week, I was telling my hubby that it's a miracle that anyone is born healthy and whole. From the moment of conception, there are a myriad of things that can go wrong. Add to that 9-10 months of development that must go according to plan and the chances for failure continue to go up. That's even assuming Mom takes prenatal vitamins, doesn't drink or smoke, gets regular checkups, etc.

If it's a miracle that we're even here at all, then it should give us a sense of our worth to God. Jeremiah 1:5 says, "Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you..." (the Message). God knew us fully and had a purpose for each one of us.

Psalm 139:16 says, "Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day" (the Message).

We cannot believe God doesn't care about us or know what's going on. He looked ahead through time and space and saw that I'd often be critical, controlling, mean, angry, selfish (and the list goes on and on) and said, "That's OK, I'm going to let her be born and live anyways" because He loved me.

Value is defined as "an amount...considered to be a fair and suitable equivalent for something else." In other words, something is worth the price paid for it. The blood of Jesus was the payment that would cover over my sin and allow me to be called a child of God. We were purchased for that price, so our value in God's eyes must be very high.