A Friend In Need

I was looking for something in my emails and I found the one that I’d written to a friend after I was born again. I titled the email “Saved,” and the first line reads, “I wanted you to know that I have found God.” When I read that now, it makes me laugh – I didn’t find God, He found me. My friend, God bless her, was overjoyed. She didn’t correct what I’d written, even though she had been a Christian for years and could have been condescending. Some Christians can be like that – they act all Holy Holy Holy and then a newly saved person, or someone searching and seeking says something and they smile that “Oh, aren’t you cute,” smile and shake their head with a little shake and say, “That’s not the way we say it, dear.” A woman I know said something to me once about someone who was having a hard time leaving the past behind and stepping out in faith. It was someone who was new to the idea of a God who does miracles, and who hadn’t seen any of God’s miracles yet. All of our walks are different, and this person was having a very big battle right from the start. That happens sometimes when there is a really huge calling on someone’s life – someone who is going to reach out with God’s love in a big way to many people – someone who is a healer and an evangelist.

I was saying how I knew that God would win and that it was just a matter of time, and this woman said, “Yes, He will, but there will be a price to pay. We always have to pay a price when we are not obedient to what God is calling us to do.” That’s just not the God I know. God has been so patient with me – before I was born again and every day of my life since then – He already paid the price on Calvary, because He knew me before I was ever born and knew that I was stubborn and fearful and would mess things up. He paid the price so I wouldn’t have to. It doesn’t mean I can do whatever I want with no consequences – being saved doesn’t give me the right to do things I know are wrong. But being afraid to step out in faith has never made God angry – that’s not the kind of God He is. He knows we’re human and we’re afraid and faith doesn’t make sense to us. He knows it’s hard to believe some of the things He says because we need to see in order to believe, and He says some things sometimes that sound just plain crazy if you’re looking at what you see. What He says can be the exact opposite of our current reality. Let the weak say I am strong and the poor say I am rich? How the heck is that supposed to happen? But it does, when we can step out in faith and trust and believe that His word is greater than what we see, and greater than anything or anyone. When we trust that He truly is the Lord of all. But that takes time, and sometimes for some of us, it takes longer. It all depends on our own experiences in life, the things that have shaped our belief system before we recognize that His is the best belief system. His is based on love and truth and joy and peace, but many times our experiences have been exactly the opposite. God knows that, and He knows it's a learning process. When we are born again, we are like children again. We have to go through the same learning process that children do, to learn how to live our lives in a new way.

When I wrote to my friend in my newly born again excitement, she wrote back, “I am in a library and trying not to scream because God is so good! I’m about to dance for joy!!!!!  Just trust God Jannie in every little situation. You just made my year.” I love her response – it is so much from the heart – from a beautiful heart. She had been praying for me through those dark days before I was born again, never once saying the kind of things that other woman had to say about another person in the early stages of faith. According to God, we are supposed to lift each other up, to intercede in prayer, to speak life. And that's exactly what she did. This same friend sent me an email a little while after that with an encouraging story about Rahab, the prostitute who God used to help the Children of Israel win the battle at Jericho, and who is part of the lineage of Christ. There’s a great message in the email my friend forwarded to me, “God saw potential in Rahab and called her out of her past, and into a great adventure and a life filled with promise. God sees the same potential in you.”

When you look through the Bible, God uses so many people who other people would say were unworthy, people who had lived lives that were anything but the picture of clean living, people who were cowards, people who didn’t always do the right thing, people who that other woman might call disobedient because they didn’t do exactly what God said to do when He said to do it because they doubted and were afraid. But in each case, it was their heart that God was looking at. He knows what He’s capable of and He know everything about us. He knows our fears and doubts, and He knows what we've been through in our lives, the secret things that no one else knows. He also knows He doesn’t need us to do what He wants to do. But He loves us, every single one of us, and loves to be in relationship with us, and because He loves us, He’ll patiently wait and help us grow into the place that He’s prepared for us so that we can learn how to trust Him and learn that obedience to God is not a terrible thing.

There are words that we use when we talk about our relationship with God that because of bad experiences with people in our lives have taken on a meaning that is negative. Obedience is one of those words. When I think of obedience, I think of a child being punished, a child that is under an authority that says and does things just to show who is in power, and that is not the kind of obedience that reflects our relationship with God. When God tells us to do something, it is not an arbitrary order, just to show us who's boss. He knows all things and sees all things, the whole picture that we can't see. When He tells us to do something, it is because He knows the future, and even though what He is asking us to do right now may not make sense, there is a really wonderful and important reason He is asking us to do it. That is the kind of obedience He asks of us, and even then we still have a choice. But when we make the choice to do things His way, we find the place of greatest joy and can live in the blessings that come with that kind of obedience that is built out of our trust in Him.

Another thing my friend wrote is, “I knew you would find your way right where you are.” She had been praying, and she trusted that God would do what He promises to do. Hebrews 7:25 tells us that Jesus, “can completely save those who are approaching God through Him, because He always lives to speak with God for them.” Jesus is our model. As we trust Him for salvation and answered prayer for ourselves, if we are obedient to Him, we are supposed to lift each other up, to intercede in prayer, to speak life. Around the same time, another friend sent me an email with a story about two high school students, one who is new in town, a geek, and the other who is more popular, but who reaches out in friendship one day, and in the story we later find out the importance of his simple act of kindness. On their graduation day, the former geek who is now a swan is giving the valedictory speech, and he says thank you to his friend who it turns out saved his life by being kind to him. He had been so miserable and alone that he was planning to kill himself. It’s a beautiful story, and there are some beautiful words in the email message that surrounds the story, “Never underestimate the power of your actions. With one small gesture you can change a person’s life - for better or for worse. God puts us all in each other’s lives to impact one another in some way. Look for God in others.”

If we are so busy looking for fault, finding a reason why someone will have to pay a price, trying to make God’s plans fit our own personal view of how things should work, trying to make an equation that makes sense to our way of thinking, we won’t see the miracle of the love of God, and how His plans for us are the best plans of all. We’ll miss out on the one thing that matters, that He is Lord of all, and yet He still loves to call us His friends. We'll miss out on the fact that when we are at our place of deepest need, when we don't know where to turn or who to turn to, He is always there, ready, willing and able to help. And we will miss out on the blessing of being obedient in the way He calls us to be obedient, the blessing of loving others just as He loves.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan