Sometimes, it really is about us~

Matthew 15:30,31~"Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed them. So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel."
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There are times in our lives when we are part of the multitude which brings others to Jesus, and there are other times, when we are the maimed, the shamed, the lame, being brought to Jesus by the multitude.

And isn't it a wonder that we can bring ourselves and lay ourselves down at Jesus' feet; mute,-struck dumb as it were by life's disasters; maimed in soul; deprived of usefulness; crippled, disabled; reeling from the results of being blind-sided.

When I was younger, I would lay on one side of my bed, and hold out my hand, so Jesus could hold it while He slept with me. And now that I am older, I don't always think of holding His hand. But I lay there in bed, and I say, 'Oh, Jesus. I receive all of Your ministry for which You came." And I hold out my heart and receive the anointing of His life. I take it in for myself and my loved ones and for those who mourn in Zion. Because He preaches good news to our poverty and heals our broken hearts. He proclaims liberty to the captive and the opening of prison to those who are bound. He proclaims favor and the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God. He comforts and consoles all of us who mourn in Zion. He gives us beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning. He clothes us with new garments of praise and takes the burdens off of our shoulders. He calls us trees of righteousness; His planting of strength, so He might be glorified."

And just as Isaiah proclaimed 700 years before Christ came that Jesus would come and do these things and that God would be glorified, so it happened. The multitudes glorified God when they experienced the ministry of Jesus.

Unless we receive the ministry of Jesus for ourselves, we cannot pass on His ministry to others. Sometimes, it really is about us. Sometimes, life happens, and we must learn the lesson we must learn. We cannot learn someone else's lesson. For Jesus came for me. His ministry is for me. And if I look around at others and think they are in harsher prisons and worse pain and more broken-hearted than I am and I talk myself out of my own sorrow in a guilty sort of way because I am not in as much trouble as others, then I short-change what God could do in my life. I belittle my need for Him and then I don't learn what He wants from me in life's circumstances and I definitely don't receive His ministry. And then He is not glorified.

Sometimes, when people come to us, full of life's pain, we want to delve into the why's and wherefore's of their condition. And sometimes that is necessary for wisdom's sake, in order to prevent future injury and to gain understanding.

But Jesus didn't spend alot of time figuring out why people were lamed or shamed. He just healed them and said things like, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."

I hope,
when people leave our church doors,
when they walk out of our home,
when our children leave our bedroom,
when a friend hangs up the phone-

I hope that they are healed by Jesus in us
and I pray that they are fed and sustained with bread from heaven,
so they have strength for the journey towards Home.
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Matthew 15:32~"Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way."