I’m home recovering from knee surgery. The wind is blowing and it’s chilly outside for the first of May. It’s quiet today, a perfect day for rest. Why is it that I can see half a dozen things I could be doing instead? I had plans to drive up to my daughter’s today to help her plant a fig and some blueberries in an empty mulch bed, but that was before my injury.
Barely a week ago, I sat icing this same knee, waiting for the errant joint to pop back into place. I prayed, Lord, help me. A day later, I asked, Lord, help the doctor to relocate it. The next day before surgery, I prayed, God, help this to work, and let me not need to wear a brace for six weeks. Now, almost one week later, I thank God for hearing my prayers and I continue to ask Him to do the healing inside that’s necessary.
In answer to prayer, yours and mine, I see the swelling going down each day and I’m gradually regaining my range of motion. My body is responding exactly as God designed. I’m amazed by how much muscle tone can be lost in one week. I’m thankful but somewhat impatient to be back to normal. I ache to stretch full length in the morning when I’m waking up. I long to kneel with my grandchildren to play and retrieve the toys that invariably end up under the furniture. I want to sleep on my stomach again, just long enough to get comfortably drowsy. I’d like to airplane my grands from my back on the floor. All the things I didn’t think twice about last week, I want to do those things, and I pray that I will again soon- just not today. So much prayer concentrated around one seemingly insignificant body part.
As I’ve had this time to sit and reflect while the healing that only God can accomplish takes place in my body, my own impatience reminds me of the urgency I should undoubtedly feel when I see the brokenness in the world around me. I am quick to ask God to intervene in every minute detail of my own life and health. Am I am equally motivated to petition His movement in the details that aren’t visible to me but carry much more eternal significance?
My knee is one of those parts of the body that Paul wrote about that doesn’t seem very important until you try to function without it.
“In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary.”
1 Corinthians 12:22 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.12.22.NLT
Am I asking God to call out those around me and around those I love and those a world away who are perfectly situated to share the gospel of salvation in ways and places I will never know? Am I petitioning the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest fields as I am commanded?
“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples,
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.””
Matthew 9:35-38 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/mat.9.35-38.NIV
Though Jesus performed many miracles during his time on earth, not every person experienced healing or transformation even then. Scripture says that on the day of Jesus’s death, tombs opened and many holy people who had died were raised to life, but not to immortality. They died again and they await the return of Christ at the end of the age as we do. (Matthew 27:51-53)
Even the apostle Paul claimed a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan meant to torment him, that God refused to remedy or remove. Three times, Paul admits pleading with the Lord to take it away.
“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:8-10 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/2co.12.8-10.NIV
Beyond his three pleading petitions, Paul endured the weakness but he found a much better way to employ both his prayers and his time. He went, first to the nation of Israel and then to the Gentile nations as the Holy Spirit led. He wrote, letter after letter, most of what lies between the gospels and the revelation of Jesus Christ. He planted many of the first churches and trained leaders to carry on the work of ministry. Paul learned to move beyond himself in prayer and God used him to accomplish some seriously next level ministry work that has impacted the entire world for Christ.
“Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.”
Acts 14:23 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/act.14.23.NIV
I sincerely believe that God’s sovereignty means that He rules with all authority over the world and all who inhabit it. I realize the world as I see it, even from my extremely sheltered perspective, doesn’t look like this could possibly be true, but make no mistake, God is in control. There has never been a moment in all of time and eternity when He was not. There never will be a time when He is not sovereign. The world becoming more out of control only points with more certainty to God’s Word and His promises. The only thing that He relinquishes His control over is our choice to trust Him or not.
Am I so comfortable in my own routine of faith and prayer and church that my familiarity with Jesus makes me like those from his hometown in Nazareth? Do my prayers or lack thereof make it seem like I know when and where God will act or that anything is beyond Him? How can I claim to trust Him with the smallest detail like an injured knee when souls are at stake and I have not pleaded for three consecutive days for Him to intervene? Help my unbelief, Lord!
“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!””
Mark 9:23-24 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mrk.9.23-24.NLT)
“Jesus left that part of the country and returned with his disciples to Nazareth, his hometown.
The next Sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.
They asked, “Where did he get all this wisdom and the power to perform such miracles?”
Then they scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.”
They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.
Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family.”
And because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them.
And he was amazed at their unbelief.
Then Jesus went from village to village, teaching the people.”
Mark 6:1-6 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mrk.6.1-6.NLT
May God’s work in my hometown never be limited by my self-centered, short-sighted lack of prayer.
All of Jesus’s miracles pointed to one thing- His divinity! He is God and He alone can save a cursed people. Why else would he intervene on behalf of a woman caught in adultery or heal a paralyzed man by saying your sins are forgiven? And from the cross, before He said it is finished, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)
“Then Jesus began to denounce the towns where he had done so many of his miracles, because they hadn’t repented of their sins and turned to God.”
Matthew 11:20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.11.20.NLT
So let’s pray. Pray more diligently, more selflessly, and without ceasing.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6-7 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/php.4.6-7.NIV
Trust God with every detail. Just don’t stay focused so close to home. Pray about the broken things, but pray more for broken people, the sick and the sin-sick. He is working all things together. All things seen and unseen.
“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God.
Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.”
Hebrews 4:13 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/heb.4.13.NLT
“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”
Ephesians 6:12 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.6.12.NLT
We are citizens of heaven living in a war torn world. May our prayers be bold and God-sized until He becomes our reality.
May Your Kingdom come and Your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
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