Luke 4 - Blessing Thief or God's Champion?

“42At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. 43But he said, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent." 44And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”

These verses spoke volumes to me today. The people were begging Jesus to stay, in my opinion, implying that there was more that they needed from Him. However, Jesus was called to preach the word of God all over Judea, not just that one town. Even though there might have been more people to help, God had a greater need for Jesus in other towns as well.

This is a perfect example to us. It is so easy to get caught up in helping people. You see everyone hurting, you want to do all you can, you have compassion for their pain, maybe you have experienced the same; however, if God has a greater plan for you, then you must move on.

“Wait a second! Are you saying that God wants us to desert the needy?” No that is NOT what I’m saying. I’m saying this, you cannot help every single person in the world by yourself, nor do I believe one person is called to do that. If you try, three things can easily happen.
1. You can get burned out, quickly. By trying to help everyone, you easily get discouraged, being of no help to anyone. The task becomes overwhelming and you soon loose hope, for you are trying to do it all alone. Then, when you are gone, who will care for the people? You centered it around you alone, so without you, there is no one left to help.
2. You steal someone else’s blessing. That’s right, believe it or not, the world does not revolve around you. God has a network of millions of Christians, all who should be following the same commands. If you try to help everyone around you, then you keep other Christians from being able to help, who might have been more able and qualified than you. Because of your actions, they are not helping; therefore, you interfered and stole the blessings that God had for them and for the people needing help.
3. You interfere with God’s ultimate plan. Yes, in my opinion, at this point, you are more of a detriment to God’s plan that an asset. True, you have good intentions, but by not following God’s ultimate plan for you, by staying and attempting to help everyone, you are saying, “I know better than God”, which we don’t. Also, you will not arrive at the place God needs you the most. What if Jesus stayed in Simon’s hometown and that was the end of the story, no sacrifice, no resurrection, no price for our sins. I’m sure He wanted to stay and help, but He knew that God’s ultimate plan was more important and I thank God and Jesus that He moved on, or we all would have missed out on Salvation.

To clear up any confusion, let me tell you a story that might explain. You have a cart full of apples that you are supposed to take to an orphanage in a town down the road. Along the way there are two other towns before the orphanage. In the first town you stop and see many hungry people, so you give out your entire load of apples, except for one. Now you continue on to the next town. There are also many hungry people here, but you only have one apple left, so you have nothing to give. They ALL go hungry. Finally, you get to the orphanage to deliver the ONE apple. It is not enough, and the orphans go hungry as well. You see, by feeding EVERYONE in the first town, you had nothing to bless the second town with AND you had nothing to deliver to the orphans, which was your goal. If you had given out SOME in the first town, you could have given SOME MORE, in the second town, and STILL HAD ENOUGH to feed the orphans. Which way helped the most people? Which one appears to follow God’s ultimate plan?

Now, I am NOT SAYING don’t help anyone or refuse help saying, “someone else will take care of it, I don’t want to steal their blessing” and then you do NOTHING. I am simply saying, help where you can, actively seek God’s place for you in this world, then stick to the plan to the end. If you feel prompted by the Holy Spirit to help, then by all means HELP, but don’t feel obligated to help everyone, especially if you’re not called to do so, because you may end up helping NO ONE and serve as a hindrance to God’s plan.

“Well, how do I know God’s plan? How do I know if He wants me to move on? How do I know that He didn’t call me to help all of these people?” Let me answer these questions with this. How do you know what your parents want from you? How do you know what your boss needs? How do you know what your leaders expect? By asking! The same applies to God, our Heavenly Father. You seek God’s will by having a relationship with Him. Spend time in His Word, The Holy Bible, and in prayer (communication) with Him every day. When you develop a RELATIONSHIP (two way street, not one way phone call) with God, then He can show you His will and plan for you. Isaiah 48:17 “This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: ‘I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go’.”

God is waiting on you to seek Him and discover the plan and many blessings He has in store for you and others, isn’t it time that you seek Him NOW and discover that plan? Jesus did and, praise be to Him, I am saved because He stuck to God’s plan and put God’s will above His own!