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…Are You Really The Savior?
Have you ever felt let down by someone you thought would to help in your hour of need? Perhaps this was a person you had known for a long time and trusted to pull you through hard times.
There are times when people we hope will be on our side in our hour of need seem not to fulfill our expectations. Sometimes an incident like this may determine the future of our relationship or trust for that person.
Playing Bingo was prohibited in the elementary school I attended in Kenya. Students who broke this rule were suspended and had to be brought back to the school by a parent or guardian.
When I was in the sixth grade, some friends and I were caught playing Bingo by the school principal. We were suspended and given a date to bring our parents. I could not imagine telling my father I had been suspended from school, especially not for playing Bingo! He would probably have skinned me! I told my mother and asked her to visit the school principal, even before the date he had set.
After my mother and the principal had visited in his office for a few minutes, the principal called me in and told me I would be caned two strokes for my crime. When he finished the caning, my mother asked, “Principal, could you add one more stroke for me?”
My mother had not lived up to my expectations in my hour of need! I thought her visit would spare me from harm from the principal. To my dismay, she asked the principal to increase what I considered to be punishment.
In our spiritual journey, there are times when we feel like the Savior is not helping us in our need. We may have hoped after we accepted Him that life’s turmoil would cease, our families would be perfect, our children would straighten up and our illnesses would be no more. Yet these problems seem ever present and sometimes overwhelming. Then we wonder, “Jesus, are You still watching over me?”
John the Baptist had a similar experience. While in prison, John sent his disciples to go ask Jesus, “Art thou he should come? or look we for another?” (Luke 7:20). This same John had once said in Jesus’ presence, “Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1:36). Yet he felt let down in his hour of need. Perhaps he thought Jesus should intervene help him out of prison.
Jesus’ response to John’s question indicates that we should look at the big picture. He said, “The lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached” (Luke 7:22). As Richard Wurmbrand said in The Voice of the Martyrs, Jesus was reminding John to, “Judge Me according to what I do.”
Too often, our spiritual eyes don’t see the hand of God while we are suffering. Yes, our prayers may not be answered immediately or in the way we thought they should be. The Lord is telling us to focus on the big picture; there are always rays of hope when we live by faith.
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