To Encourage You

Isaiah 40:29 “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.”

God is a helper to the needy.  That’s the message of His Word over and over again. 

God’s message is a message of hope to the prisoner, the downtrodden, the blind, the lame, and the weak.  He’s the Great Physician, but His help is only to those who are sick, for it is only the sick that need a physician (Mark 2:17).  The Pharisees thought they could see. They were absolutely convinced that they had perfect vision regarding spiritual things.  Therefore, Jesus couldn’t help them, for they were certain that they had no need of Him.  If anything, they wanted to be rid of Him (John 9). But it was to their eternal loss. 

First and foremost, Jesus came to meet man’s greatest need: the need for forgiveness from sin.  However, the righteous, i.e., the self-righteous, because they think they have no need for forgiveness, think they have no need of Him.  That’s the sad fact of the matter for many in the world today.  Although they are spiritually in a condition of great need, because they think they have no need, they make no effort to turn to Jesus Who is the only One Who can help them. 

There is a very clear picture of this in John’s vision of Christ recorded in the Revelation as He walks among the seven churches in Asia Minor.  One of those churches, the Laodicean church, was the most self-confident of the seven.  They didn’t need a thing. But to them, Jesus said the following: “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:15-20). 

What a perilous condition this church was in, yet they didn’t see it. Their self-confident view of themselves was “I need nothing.”  Of course, that wasn’t true, but they so confidently believed a lie about themselves as they ventured perilously close to destruction. 

The Bible warns us that this will be the condition of the world in the end times.  It says that “While people are saying, ’There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). That’s, sadly, the way it has always been.  The people of Noah’s day didn’t think they needed an ark, Lot’s sons-in-law thought he was joking when he urged them to flee from Sodom (Genesis 19:14), and King Belshazzar thought he was on top of the world as he partied using the sacred vessels from God’s holy temple (Daniel 5). In each of these instances, the overwhelming need of these individuals was lost on them, to their eternal damnation and destruction. 

A recognition of need: it’s always the first step on the path to salvation.  God’s message of forgiveness: it’s always and only for the poor in spirit, those who mourn, and those who, in their sinful condition, hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:3-6).  But for those who think they don’t need a thing, the self-confident, the ones who think they are just fine as they are, there is no message of hope for them.  They don’t need it. At least that’s what they think, while the truth is that they need the Savior, the Great Physician who heals the sick, the most of all.