Desperate circumstances will reveal my need for God. The synagogue ruler broke rank and chose to reach out to Jesus because he was desperate. His daughter was far more important than his position or reputation, and in her death he recognized how empty, pointless and worthless was everything in which he had trusted. He was empty and in desperate circumstance.
The woman’s condition isolated her, deemed unclean, without community or friends, and without resources. She lived each day in desperate circumstances.
Both in Desperate Circumstances
Both of them were in desperate circumstances. They could find no one, no family, no government program, nothing to depend upon or rely, but in reality, they lived in this condition all along. I am always in desperate circumstances when I am without a relationship with God. It almost always requires a crisis for me to see it. Until I realize my true condition and confess it, Jesus cannot work in my life.
If I have not had this experience of coming to the end of all I know and have, I will reach this point at some point if Jesus is calling me to him. The quicker I recognize my desperate and daily need, the quicker I can move forward in my relationship with him. As I think further about desperate circumstances, it seems that I should approach God in prayer with this attitude always: trusting in him alone, rejecting all the known and trusted, but reaching out to him, crying out to him, in desperation. By doing this, I will know that he alone has answered my prayer.
Read Matthew 9:18-26
- Why does it sometimes take desperate circumstances for me to rely on God?
- Why should I view desperate circumstances as an opportunity?
- What can I do to prepare for desperate circumstances?
Passage for Meditation
But when Jesus turned and saw her he said, ‘Have courage, daughter! Your faith has made you well.’ Matthew 9:22
Prayer
Help me to realize my daily need for you that I need you more than air, food, or water. Help to remain in you and lean on you all days not just when circumstances become desperate. To you, help me to come in prayer first. Help it to be the first thing not the last thing.
