Tuesday Reading: John 21:20-22
Key Verse: John 21:22
22 Jesus said to him, If I desire that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.
Devotion:
How often have you got so tied up in what someone else was doing that you did not get to complete your task or even failed at doing it. When we see others failing we do like to be able to stop and give them a hand if we can; but by doing so we do sometimes fall back ourselves too. God has given us the task of loving our neighbours but His first task is that we love Him above all else. Without that love for Him we have very little that we can give to others and He wants to make sure that we are firm in Him before we go ahead and try to help others.
Imagine being caught up in a flood and jumping into the water to try and help someone before suddenly realising that you never learned to swim yourself! It may seem a stupid thing for us to do knowing that we cannot swim, but that is the way we work in our lives with God. We need to be firmly grounded in His Word and in His Love before we can reach out to others and be sure of helping them. It does not mean that we have to ignore all else until we are at the level of a Pastor but rather that we need to make sure that we do not get out of our depth. It is not a big thing to admit that you do not know the answer because you can always say that you will find out and bring it back... just as we may run off to fetch a rope to save someone.
Christ wants us to follow Him. He knows where our weaknesses are and He knows where our strengths lie so trusting in Him for everything is the logical thing to do. That is the sure way of being able to help others. It will not help anyone to be caught up in the same mess that you are trying to save someone else from because that makes the problem bigger. It would not be good to say that you knew how to help and then to fail miserably and dash everyone’s hopes. God is the one who gives us the strength and wisdom to help ourselves and to help others. To be able to do that we need to learn from Him.
Points to Ponder:
Are you a willing student?
Will you call for help?
