Isn’t it interesting sometimes that the human being forgets about his necessity for God when the going gets good? We call out or we cry falling to our knees with tears streaming down our faces when the going gets tough, but then the feeling of necessity for God is stripped away as soon as things get better. Have you noticed that? It’s as if an enemy force invades our minds, sometimes without even realizing it. There is a war that is waged. The thought that God desires the glory for the victory that had been battled offends our nature. From the very beginning the desire for self-glorification has resided within us. Whether we notice it or not, handing over the glory to God for the victory angers the nature within us. Thoughts begin to rise up within us saying that all was coincidental, or that the resources of energy and might that were exhausted came from the man rather than God. We say, because we could not see God actually doing something physically that the results must have come from what we could see. Maybe we say that in desperation we need to have the mindset that there is a God. We say the mindset is what makes the difference and that it is within our own power to change the situation by having a different frame of mind. We begin to give glory once again to ourselves for winning the battle. We reason that the desperation was simply a stage, that it was simply something that we needed to get through, and that now we are stronger than before for “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” right?
When we don’t remember the desperation that was so overwhelming in the moment of trial, the tranquility of this moment becomes the enemy of God. Desperation reaps tranquility between God and man, but tranquility so often reaps separation between God and man. We are emotional creatures being driven by the wind and making decisions based on those emotions. We are the same way in our relationship with God. When we desperation sets in, we need Him, but when we sense that it has left, we don’t need Him so much. The funny thing is that the desperation has never left. The state of our sinful natures has denied the possibility of saving ourselves from the real problem. The temporary desperation often blinds us from seeing the permanent deprivation of our eternal souls. Even for Christians it is difficult.
The trials are designed to direct us to the real problem. The trials are designed to point us towards our eternal necessity for God, not so much our temporal. In the book of Mark chapter 9:14-29 we see the results of a loss of desperation in the disciples. You see, a little earlier in their ministry the disciples were given a special assignment to go out and do miracles and cast out demons in the name of Jesus (Mark 6:7-13). After this they come back and while Jesus is doing some things with three of the disciples on the top of a mountain close by a man comes to the other nine disciples and asks them to cast out a demon that had taken over the body of his son. They try and try but cannot. I ask myself, weren’t they able to do it just a little bit ago? Yes! Now they cannot and we see the reason why in verse twenty-nine of chapter 9 and it says, “And he said to them, `This kind is able to come forth with nothing except with prayer and fasting.’” Are you telling me Jesus that they didn’t pray and fast? If that was the thing which was needed to get rid of the spirit, but they couldn’t get rid of it, was it because they didn’t do it? Oh man, what had they done? They could do this before, but not now. It’s because when they first did it there was a desperation that came from the fact that there was no way they could take out the demons on their own. It was new, it was odd, it was something they saw as something only God could do, but now, what was the difference? They lost that fear.
There wasn’t prayer and fasting because they believed they could do it themselves. There was a dependence on God in the midst of the desperation, the new thing, but there was not when they became comfortable. The normality of casting out demons led the disciples to forget their CONTINUED DESPERATION for the God who alone could command demons. Their need for God’s power in these situations did not change, it was their frame of mind. What happened is that instead of realizing the DEPRIVATION OF THEIR NATURE in the inability to command demons, they began to correlate their efforts with the power of God. Isn’t that what we do so often?
In the time of desperation we depend on God, if it’s new, or scary and then when we get better or the circumstances change we lose that sense of desperation for the power of God to carry us through it still. The fact that the disciples had no power in themselves to cast out demons never changed, but their mindset did. They didn’t pray nor did they fast. The inability did not change, but the concept of their desperation for God did.
Our desperation for God never changes. In my nature I need him whether circumstances are good or bad, whether I feel like we need Him, or I feel like “I’m good now.” The reality of my condition does not change with circumstance. The reality of their condition did not change after they were able to cast out so many demons. The reality of our condition is what we need to recognize.
Don’t allow yourself to be blinded by the circumstance and know that YOU’RE DESPERATE NEED FOR GOD REMAINS THE SAME AT ALL TIMES. We are desperate because of our nature. Remember the desperation of your soul at all times. Be intentional. Even when you feel like you are good, remember that it’s a slippery slope from there. If you know you haven’t been investing in that relationship with God recently, fall to your knees intentionally in that moment and ask the Lord to help you remember your desperation for him. Beg Him to remind you. BEG HIM TO MAKE YOU DESPERATE. Know that it is what you need at all moments and even though you’re sinful nature leads you away from realizing your desperation, fight against it and ask the Lord to give you that desperation.
God bless.