Have you ever felt like you just wanted to give up? That you were “dead” to the world. Nothing matter. You felt like everything was lost. Even your favorite hobbies couldn’t get you off the couch.
Jesus can raise up your dead spirit!
Early in Dwight L. Moody’s ministry, he was called upon to conduct his first funeral. Mr. Moody, desiring to do things correctly, went to the Bible to consider how Jesus would have done it. He found an amazing truth. Jesus didn’t hold any funeral services!
In fact, the New Testament tells us that whenever Jesus came into contact with those who were dead He gave them life! He raised three people from the dead: Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter, and the widow’s son.
One time Jesus goes to a little village called Nain. As he approaches the town gate a dead person is being carried out – the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. It was a serious situation for mom, for her last means of support was gone. The crowd of mourners would go home, and she would be left penniless and alone. The future was bleak.
Jesus sees her and his heart goes out to her and he says, “don’t cry”.
Then he goes up and touches the coffin, and says, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” Bold stuff. The dead man sits up and begins to talk, and Jesus gives him back to his mother.
This showed the power of Christ is several ways:
There was great power in His presence–when He would appear, demons would flee before Him
There was great power in His voice. After all, He spoke the world into existence. He calmed the raging sea. There is still great power in His Word.
There was great power in His touch. He touched the coffin of this young man. He touched broken bodies and restored them.
After the young man was raised from the dead, everyone there was filled with awe and praised God.
The bereaved mother praised God. The dead son praised God.
No matter what you are going through today, God wants to raise up your dead spirit. He wants to bring hope in the midst of despair. He desires to bring comfort in the midst of pain. Jesus feels compassion for you today. You are not alone!
Jesus says to you, “get up! I have it under control!”
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2 comments:
So praise God! Praise Him in the best of times, praise Him in the worst of times; knowing that He is in control and will meet all of your needs. Now, if you're like me, sometimes you just don't understand exactly what needs He's meeting at times, especially times of hardship, grief, and loss. But He is meeting some need of yours that you might be unaware of...or He might be meeting the needs of another and you are touched by that in some way. Often, at funerals, people weep and wail when a long sick Christian family member has passed away...I say rejoice for he or she has been made perfect, healed absolutely, in heaven this day! Yes, in meeting the total healing need of that family member, God has removed them from you temporarily and this causes you grief but you can see them again in heaven. He has met their need to be whole and unblemished and can meet your need for solace and care if you let Him.
God is good and He can (WILL) take bad things and turn them to good. I know this because He took the terminal illness of my son, and his subsequent death, to return me and many of my family back to the kingdom of heaven. Through the illness and loss of our son, and the way he chose to live his life for God, we returned back to God ourselves. That's God taking the bad and turning it to eternal good. He can take your impatience and turn it into patience; He can take your anger and turn it into love; He can take your financial difficulty and turn it into a profound recognition of how little it takes to get by.
My Grandmother raised six children during the Depression, losing four others along the way due to childhood illnesses or stillbirth. She came through that time of poverty with an understanding of how long things can last if you nuture them, with an understanding of how strong a family can be if they hold together, with a lasting desire to always walk with God in her heart and trust that He would find a way for her to prosper. My Grandmother was never a rich woman if measured in wealth but she was a vastly rich woman in friends and family and in those that she had touched in her life. Her funeral was a packed house and I was honored to deliver her eulogy, in which I didn't elaborate on her loss but on her gain. I tried to showcase her love for her family, but more importantly, her love for God in all that she did. Her life changed many people but she never had much money to spare...what she did have, she gave away readily. But what she gave away most was her love and the wellspring from which her love rose...God.
Love God today, love Him forever. He can make all things right. Praise His name mightily!
Jon
If every Christian is honest, we would all agree we experience times our spirit is dead. I may sound like I’m generalizing, but if we are walking continually in our flesh, we might as well be dead. If we are struggling with time with God, prayer, commitment of serving the Lord with joy, wouldn’t we have a dead spirit? If we attend Sunday church, maybe another day of the week and have no fruits throughout the week or months, isn’t that a dead spirit? If I find myself grumbling and complaining, I’m walking in my flesh and I am not lifting up the living Christ in my actions and my words, I too am dead. I can say all I want that I’m a Christian and I am a child of God, but if my fruits do not bare witness then what good am I. Christ wants me to be alive in him, active, and willing to be used by him. I wish I could say every day of every year I am that joyful servant. And when I find myself walking in the flesh it doesn’t take me long to realize my grumblings, complaining and bad attitude which come from my own thoughts and not that of Christ. I must continually look to the Lord to revive me, renew me, and especially to “raise me up” so I can be used by him. Every day counts. Not for me and how I view life and live for Christ, but because people are dying out there without knowing Jesus. I want to be alive in Christ for as long as he would have me on this earthy, not just physically, but in all my words and actions. But, in order to "rise up" for God to be in control, I have to first desire it. It's yours and my choice...
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