God Doesn't 'Need' Our 'Help'

[Ramez5]

A picture popped into my mind one morning and it was so startling that I almost gaped. I told my husband about it and he was almost as startled by the picture as I was.

I am not one for 'visions or dreams' and have never experienced one in my life so I'm not claiming to have received any such thing. All I know is that I saw this mental picture and how it humbled me--and shocked me. Little did I know how much the Lord would allow me to live this out in the following days.

It flashed in my head so fast I can't say I know exactly what I was thinking, but it seems to me that I saw a gift-wrapped box in my mind's eye--tied with a bow and I was handing it up to Jesus as an act of obedience and worship. I had the feeling that this picture represented me giving myself and my life, my natural abilities, my efforts to help others, personality, talents and gifts-- all that was intrinsically 'me' to Jesus. It was like I was laying 'myself' on the altar as a love offering to Him.

Of course there is nothing wrong with that idea in the sense of offering ourselves as a 'living sacrifice'. Rom 12:1 This is 100% biblical.

But the shocking thing is that I had the strongest sense that what I had put in that box was weighty and valuable.. at least to someone. It was my 'all'! Was that not a lot? We would think so wouldn't we? To give Jesus everything we hold dear and love, our talents, our effort, our goals, our will, our uniqueness.. so much--at least in our eyes, is a huge deal.

Imagine my horror when, as I handed the box it shook a little, and I heard a rattle. I shook the box..and all that was in it, when I opened it again and looked inside were a few tiny little trinkets.. rattling around in the bottom...so much for my 'gift'.

My life, it seemed, was basically an empty box.... nothing.. just trinkets.. virtually worthless to anyone--I was stunned.

Was the Lord trying to show me that the 'all of 'me' that I so 'heroically' laid on the altar.. was worth nothing? I'm afraid so.

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,…Philippians 3:7-9

Dung - 4657 skýbalon
(from 2965 /kýōn, "dog" and 906 /bállō, "throw") – properly, waste thrown to dogs, like filthy scraps of garbage (table-scraps, dung, muck, sweepings); (figuratively) refuse, what is good-for-nothing except to be discarded (used only in Phil 3:8).

This word is only used in this one verse... and nowhere else. Wow--to think of what I put in that box...as table-scraps, dung, muck, and sweepings! Yes Lord, I know now.. and I agree with all my heart!

He proceeded to show me in the next few days that 'all of me' is not only useless, but worse.. cancerous. What can we possibly do to 'help' Jesus? Nothing. God doesn't need our help to help others.

Day after day, at church, at home, on the road.. I watched as others did all the things I had previously and mistakenly thought I was so uniquely 'gifted' to do..or that I thought God was using me to do.

They not only did all those things.. they did them way way better than I ever could! God used them beautifully and I rejoiced in it. I was so happy for them and glad that those I loved could be helped by others. The fact that He didn't choose to use me was fine--well yes it was embarrassing.. and worse--seeing my sin and pride was just flat painful beyond words. It sure was eye-opening--but I was very grateful that my loved ones were getting helped.

It is a beautiful thing to watch the body of Christ at work, doing the things the Lord gifts and calls them to do. But we must remember, that we, each, are only one tiny part of the body.

He uses everybody.. at different times and in different ways. It would be a terrible thing.. and dangerous, if he used just one of us, all the time--deadly in fact for our pride. In short time, we'd be useless.

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we are Jews or Gentiles, whether we are bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. I Cor. 12:12-14

Day by day, it's as if the Lord held me back and told me to 'watch, be quiet, and wait'.. so I did. I watched the body of Christ do what it was supposed to do. It was wonderful but humbling at the same time.

Painfully, irrevocably, and forcefully, this fact got engraved into my mind, soul, spirit... "I don't need your help--and neither do they."

He teaches where He instructs us not to teach. “Master . . . let us make three tabernacles . . .” (Luke 9:33).

Are we playing the part of an amateur providence, trying to play God’s role in the lives of others? Are we so noisy in our instruction of other people that God cannot get near them? We must learn to keep our mouths shut and our spirits alert. God wants to instruct us regarding His Son, and He wants to turn our times of prayer into mounts of transfiguration. When we become certain that God is going to work in a particular way, He will never work in that way again. ~Oswald Chambers

How he has cemented this paragraph in my mind and oh how painful and humbling it was!

To think that I was trying to do 'God's work for Him.. however unconsciously! It's just absurd when you think about it.

Four times in a row.. maybe five.. I lost count--I found myself trying to advise those who it seemed had actually asked for the advice.. yet they didn't. And all my words were just worthless and empty and powerless.

If Jesus could teach me,could He not teach them? What hudspuh to think the Lord needed my help to teach anyone anything. What worthless rags I was offering. Our friends and family need Jesus' help.. not ours. I can comfort.. as can anyone, but not fix.

For I say unto you, that God is able from these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Luke 3:8b

Yes, sometimes the Lord uses us, but He doesn't have to and he certainly doesn't need our help. He can use anyone..who is humble enough to stay out of the way so His Spirit can work through them. Praying is something we can safely do, loving, serving..but our mouths.. mostly He doesn't need our mouths or our ideas.



Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
John 12:3

So is it then wrong to give ourselves to Jesus as a 'living sacrifice'? No of course not! The Lord treasures our willingness to give our 'all' to Him.

Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. John 12:25-26

Like Mary, who poured out her pound of ointment.. Jesus loves our 'box'.. It is of great worth that we give our lives to Him.. that we abandon all the things we held so dearly. He wants us to love Him just for who He is.. even if he never uses us! We don't have to 'do' anything to be valuable to Jesus..He loves us because of who HE is not because of who WE are.

A heart and life abandoned to Him and waiting on Him is precious to Him. Our souls matter very much to Him.. and our praise and adoration.. and our willingness to serve as his Spirit directs and empowers us.. but let it be His Spirit and Power.. and His timing.

If Jesus says to wait.. we wait. If He says to work.. we work--as He gives us the power to do so. If He says to speak.. then and ONLY then do we speak and God forbid if it is any words but His.

This song by Casting Crowns says it better than I ever could...

Who am I?

I am a flower quickly fading here today and gone tomorrow

A wave tossed in the ocean

Vapor in the wind

Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am

I am Yours, I am Yours

That is all that I can ever lay claim to.. that I am His. In any other sense.. God doesn't 'need' me at all.. and he sure doesn't 'need' my 'help'.. and for that matter nor does anyone else. What can I offer to God that is of any value? Not much...

I am not saying that God won't use me or let me help someone....but how important it is that it be what God wants.. not something where I intrude myself where the Lord has not placed me.

Oh how empty and wasteful our best efforts are apart from the Holy Spirit's unction! Every time I read about Martha.. I see some of myself. Every time I read about Mary, I wish I had more of her heart.. that was more worried about worship than work and service.

I mentioned only two posts ago, that though we can truly live free of bondage to the flesh.. helplessly indulging in sins of commission or even ommission, that the process of sanctification of our deeply ingrained sin nature and soulishness...the exposing and removing of blindspots will always be part of our walk with the Lord till we die.

We can never know ourselves truly.. unless the Lord shows our sinful hearts to us. He graciously does this as we are able to bear it. Now I know how empty I am, but I sometimes it's hard to grasp just how sinful my heart really is. It's so liberating when we can agree with God about our sinful selves. Sometimes we forget,so the Lord has to remind us.

Yes it hurts but the Lord gives me the grace to thank Him whole-heartedly, because I want to die. I want to be purified by His word and His Holy Spirit cleansing me. Surgery isn't fun for anyone, but if it cuts out cancerous cells then who wouldn't submit to it however painful? I hate the sin in me and am glad I have a loving and skilled surgeon who can cut it out.

…23And Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25"He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.… John 12:23-25

Dear Lord, Thank you for all you have taught me this last couple of weeks. Thank you for showing me who I am and who I am not.. and who you are. How great you are! May I never get the two confused again! If this painful but freeing and wonderful lesson that you have taught me can help someone else.. then I am willing for all to see it. Thank you for loving us.. warts and all.. and for caring enough to show us our true nature. Then we can joyfully die.. and let you live through us as you see fit. May we love you and adore you and hold nothing back, as you enable us to. Amen