What’s your first reaction when a problem arises? Some of us call somebody – a friend, the pastor, our mother – to talk things through, bounce off ideas, or know someone is on our side. Others turn inward to isolate themselves from the world until the pain or the issue eases up a bit. Some lash out, immediately retorting back whatever that first feeling pulls up from within. Or maybe you handle the dilemma by eating, cursing, shopping, drinking, going to a movie, or taking a long drive. While all of these are mechanisms to let off steam, few if any (especially not the cursing, drinking, and lashing out) solve the problem.

A man we hear about in Matthew chapter 17 faced a problem with his child. He approached Jesus and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him” Matthew 17:15 (NKJ). After chastising the disciples for their unbelief, Jesus instructed the man saying, “Bring him here to Me” (verse 17b) and he rebuked the demon so that the child was cured. Jesus went on to say that this type would come out only by prayer and fasting (verse 21).

It hit me that this man’s first reaction was to take his son to the disciples rather than to Jesus. All through the Gospels, we read of the flocking multitudes taking their sick to Jesus, but this guy took his son to the disciples first. We do know that the disciples healed people and cast out demons to their own surprise when Jesus sent them out to do so (see Luke 10:17), and that’s the point. While Jesus was with them, the focus was on Him, not on them. The disciples could do nothing without directly being sent by Jesus to do so, and whatever miraculous things they did always turned the attention back to Jesus, the source of the miraculous.

Our first reaction in any difficulty, crisis, or predicament needs to be to look to Jesus. He personally invites us to do just that. “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” Matthew 11:28-30 (NKJ).

I personally invite you to try it the next time you face a problem. You can always go back to your other reactions if turning to Jesus first doesn’t work. What have you got to lose? But I’m confident you’ll find that taking your burdens to the Lord will be the best decision you ever could have made.

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©2016 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

Links you won’t want to miss: 

• Watch Sharon in two shows on The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network: 
  • Life That Matters with Sharon Norris Elliott, and
  • A View from the Upper Room

from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv. 

(Stream current show or view past episodes anytime!)

• Pick up a copies of Sharon’s books for yourself and as gifts for your family members and friends!

• Why I Get Into Trouble link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

• Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

Boomerangs Videolink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk

• Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

Sharon’s other books still available:

Certain events happen in our lives by which we mark time. In other words, our present daily lives begin to pivot around that particular happening from the past. This naturally should be the case concerning landmark days such as our wedding and the birth of a child. However, traumatic experiences can have the same result.

Such was my understanding enlightened when I visited New Orleans, Louisiana, for the first time. Four and a half years had passed since Hurricane Katrina devastated that city, but her mark had been as indelibly placed on the people’s hearts as were those painted X’s on the flooded-out homes. The people I met were the kindest I’d ever encountered, yet their conversation was noticeably punctuated by the prepositional phrases “since the storm,” “in the storm,” “before the storm,” or “after the storm.”

I gained a brand new sensitivity for the people of New Orleans because despite the deep pain many still carried, they were rising above and doing their best to move beyond it. They reached out to embrace me. Their graciousness and outpouring of friendliness made me feel just like family. If I had felt sorry for them before, I now felt “with” them because they let me in to their pain and allowed me to become a part of them.

I have a little more understanding of what Jesus Christ was feeling when the Bible tells us, “And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick” Matthew 14:14 (NKJ).

Compassion is a function of pain. One cannot have compassion on another unless that other has experienced some kind of pain, because to have compassion means we put ourselves in the other person’s shoes and feel the hurt they feel. Only the compassionate really “get it.” The love emanating from my new friends in New Orleans taught me how crucial it is to obey the truth of 1 Peter 3:8: “Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous” (NKJ).

Let’s start today to reach out with compassionate hearts, hands, and words for those still hurting long after the storms in their lives have passed.

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©2016 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

Links you won’t want to miss: 

• Watch Sharon in two shows on The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network: 
  • Life That Matters with Sharon Norris Elliott, and
  • A View from the Upper Room

from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv. 

(Stream current show or view past episodes anytime!)

• Pick up a copies of Sharon’s books for yourself and as gifts for your family members and friends!

• Why I Get Into Trouble link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

• Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

Boomerangs Videolink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk

• Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

Sharon’s other books still available:

In Genesis chapter 43, Joseph’s brothers found themselves in a bind. The land was still experiencing a grave famine and they had run out of the food they’d bought from Egypt on their first trip. When their father told them to go back to buy more, they reminded him that they couldn’t go without taking Benjamin, their youngest brother, with them. Although Jacob protested, there was no other option.

With Judah solemnly making himself the pledge for the boy, Jacob sent all the sons away, but not without a little something extra. “And their father Israel said to them, ‘If it must be so, then do this: Take some of the best fruits of the land in your vessels and carry down a present for the man—a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds’” Genesis 43:11 (NKJ).

Wait a minute. I thought there was a severe famine in the land. How is it that Jacob and his family had balm, honey, spices, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds? I don’t know the answer to that, but what I do know is what they had is not what they needed. Regardless of the value of the stuff they had, without what they needed – bread, one of the basic necessities of life – they still would have died. So despite Jacob’s reluctance to send Benjamin to Egypt with his brothers, he had no other choice if he wanted to live.

Is what we have, what we need? What precious thing or person are we holding onto today that could very well be keeping us from what we need? Are we keeping our hands so full of what’s good that we fail the ability to grasp what’s best? “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the LORD our God”
Psalm 20:6-8 (NKJ). “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” Luke 12:15 (NKJ).

Today, let’s choose to live not merely surviving with what we have, but thriving because we allow God to give us what we need.

___________________________

©2016 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

Links you won’t want to miss: 

• Watch Sharon in two shows on The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network: 
  • Life That Matters with Sharon Norris Elliott, and
  • A View from the Upper Room

from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv. 

(Stream current show or view past episodes anytime!)

• Pick up a copies of Sharon’s books for yourself and as gifts for your family members and friends!

• Why I Get Into Trouble link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

• Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

Boomerangs Videolink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk

• Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

Sharon’s other books still available: