Good Morning Friends,
Some of my relatives out west are what you might call cowboys. So, when we relocated to Collier County back in the 1960’s the town of Immokalee was not so foreign to my father. Still the situation, in terms of human rights seemed dreadful. The situation was no laughing matter. All the cowboy good judgement born out of the experience of making bad judgments was not all that helpful. Still he knew it was never a good idea to slap a man who is chewing tobacco, and to never kick a cow chip on a hot day, or to squat with your spurs on. But laughing at the problem was like changing a dirty diaper. It seemed to help for a time but was not a lasting solution to the challenge. Something more was needed…beyond one lifetime. When Things Seem Impossible What Sign Do You Look For?
Scripture: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same way with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.
James 1:1-11 (NRSV)
The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven, to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.” And he left them, and getting into the boat again, he went across to the other side.
Mark 8:11-13 (NRSV)
He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'”
Luke 16:31 (NRSV)
And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5 (NRSV)
Message: Well maybe you might look for a white flag to wave when faced with an unmanageable situation. But that is not what Mark and James are getting at in today’s lectionary scripture. Life is full of what seems like impossible situations at the time. Only in retrospect do we see that we must introduce the Jesus factor…the Holy Spirit into the impossibility. We must feed the dog in us we want to win. People are rarely looking for the truth in these situations but something to transform the impossibility into a possibility. When we come to the eighth chapter of Mark, Jesus has encounters with three different groups in a single day. First, He must deal with 4,000 hungry people; then He confronts some skeptical Jewish Pharisees. Finally, He must deal with the spiritual dullness of His disciples. There is a measure of impossibility in each encounter and Jesus is the only solution, and his sign is one of sacrifice and love. Friends, the miracle of the resurrection is the sign we must look for when faced with impossible situations, but we must understand its application. We have physical needs, social and emotional needs, but our greatest need is to fill this sense of spiritual hunger and this must be satisfied in the Word of God activated in the power of the Holy Spirit. Luke makes it clear that we must have a firm foundation for our faith here and now and not just in the sweet by and by. In the story of Lazarus and the rich man Luke points us in the direction of scripture. Paul clarifies the position in Romans. Friends, when dealing with a hardship, if we are willing to look for what God wants to do in and through us then we will experience blessings despite the pain, and we will experience triumphs despite the difficulties.
And So, no matter how inadequate we feel, God is still God, and we can trust in God whether we see all the signs or not. When the situation seems impossible, just remember to have a personal confidence in God, practice obedience to God, and understand that God has a purpose in all the experiences we have whether it is addressing our mistakes or rejoicing in our successes. In all things we need to be praying to the Father, believing in Jesus and being moved by the Holy Spirit to seek God’s desire for us to love.
Pray we give thanks in all things. Pray we realize that only Jesus can satisfy our deepest needs. Pray we realize that people are still spiritually hungry and are spiritually blind and spiritually ignorant. Pray we help others to discover the power of Word of God through the character of God in the power of God. Pray we rejoice with praise even in our sufferings. Pray we persevere. Pray we develop character and hope in the love of God. Pray we realize that when things seem impossible, if we have the right attitude, we will be better off. Pray we realize that we cannot serve both God and money.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 