A Great Prayer

Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them,

The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:  The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:  The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

Numbers 6:23-26

I came across this prayer the other day and thought it was perfect (of course it’s perfect, because it’s in the Bible!).  I have seen pictures and plaques with little prayers like this on them, but never really noticed this passage before.  I think it would be great to have this prayer hanging on a wall or sitting on a table where a person would see it and be reminded of it often.  It would be a perfect prayer to pray for anyone.

“The LORD bless thee and keep thee…”  We know that we have been greatly blessed by the Lord.  We know that it is the Lord Who keeps us.  And we surely want the Lord to bless and keep those that we know.

“The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee…”  The Lord’s face has surely shone upon us and He has most definitely been gracious to us.  What more can we ask for our friends and family?  We want Him to be gracious to them, as He has been to us.

“The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.”  When we think about what is really important to us, we probably value peace with God and peace with men above most other things.  Isn’t it wonderful to be at peace?  We have experienced it, and surely we want those we know to experience the same peace of God.

What a great prayer for every person for every day!

In the Midst of Miracles

And when they had passed over, they came into the land of Gennesaret, and drew to the shore.  And when they were come out of the ship, straightway they knew him, And ran through that whole region round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was.  And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole.

Mark 6:53-56

As soon as Jesus got off the boat, the people recognized Him and “ran through that whole region round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was.”  The people heard He was coming and ran around bringing Him every sick person that they knew.  They were desperate to get their friends and loved ones to Jesus, knowing that simply touching the hem of His garment would make them whole.

Everywhere He went, the sick were laid in the streets to try to get one touch of His garment.  Their faith was rewarded, for we are told that “as many as touched him were made whole.”  Imagine the sight of sick people lining the streets where Jesus walked.  Imagine these sick people touching his garment and being made whole.  Imagine the excitement of not only those healed, but of their friends and families as well.  It must have been a wonderful atmosphere, but one that, sadly, would not last.

These would be some of the same people who would later cry “crucify Him!, Crucify Him!”  One would think that all of these people who were healed would have formed a mighty army of followers and disciples.  But, as is the case with many Christians, their thankfulness likely waned and grew weaker.  Even being a part of the miracles did make them immune from unthankfulness and hard hearts.  Let us be ever thankful and keep in remembrance the miracle He has wrought in us!

I Stand Amazed in the Presence (Hymn)

I Stand Amazed in the Presence
Charles H. Gabriel (1905)

I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how He could love me,
A sinner, condemned, unclean.

Refrain
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!

For me it was in the garden
He prayed: “Not My will, but Thine.”
He had no tears for His own griefs,
But sweat drops of blood for mine.

Refrain

In pity angels beheld Him,
And came from the world of light
To comfort Him in the sorrows
He bore for my soul that night.

Refrain

He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own;
He bore the burden to Calvary,
And suffered and died alone.

Refrain

When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see,
’Twill be my joy through the ages
To sing of His love for me.

Refrain

“I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned unclean.”  I think that is a pretty good assessment of what we will think when we see Jesus.  We will stand amazed and we will wonder how He could love us, sinners who are indeed condemned and unclean.  In fact, I stand amazed now and wonder now how He could love a vile sinner like myself.  As the Bible says, “We love Him because He first loved us.”  We should stand amazed at that fact every day.

Hard Hearts Lead to Forgetfulness

But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out: For they all saw him, and were troubled.  And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.  And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered.  For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.

Mark 6:49-52

This must have been an amazing sight.  The disciples were in the ship in the midst of the sea in the middle of a storm.  All of a sudden, they saw Jesus walking on the water.  Of course, they didn’t recognize Him, they thought He was some kind of a spirit and were understandably afraid.  He then talked to them and told them to “Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.”  As He got into the boat, the wind ceased, which was one of the many times He showed His control over nature and the elements.

The disciples were “sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered.”  They were, quite simply, shocked.  They shouldn’t have been shocked.  They had been with Jesus for a while at that point and had seen Him do many miracles and mighty works.  They had seen Him heal people, they had seen Him cast the devils out of the maniac of Gadara, and they had seen Him feed the multitude of people with the few loaves of bread.  Why were they shocked at His walking on the water and calming the wind?

Very simple: “…they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.”  The condition of their heart effected their memory.  When our hearts get hard, it makes us forget the miracles that we have seen.  We start His doubt Him when our hearts get hard.  The disciples were no different – they were not immune to hard hearts and neither are we.

Sometimes We Need A Break

And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught.  And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while; for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.  And they departed into a desert place by ship privately.

Mark 6:30-32

The disciples had been hard at work, helping people and teaching people.  In fact, the Bible tells us that they were so busy with people “coming and going” that “they had no leisure so much as to eat.”  They were so busy that they didn’t even have time to stop and eat.  Have you ever been there?  I think we’ve all been there at one point or another.

Jesus handled this situation by telling them to “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while.”  Jesus told them to stop, to get away from everything and to get some rest.

God Himself rested on the seventh day of creation.  I don’t think that God actually “needed” to rest, as He is all-powerful.  But I do think that He was establishing an example for us to follow.  We can and should work hard at whatever we have been given to do.  “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.”  (Ecclesiastes 9:10)  We should never be lazy or shirk our duty.

But we also need rest.  Sometimes, we need to “come apart” and take a rest.  These disciples were doing a good work; they weren’t out wasting their time.  But they still needed to rest.  We hear much about working for the Lord (as well we should), but we also need to, as the disciples did, rest a while every now and then.  Sometimes we need a bit of a break or we will start to crack!

Where Did It Come From?

And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him.  And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things?  and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?

Mark 6:1-2

Everywhere Jesus went, it seems that people were amazed by Him and His wisdom, knowledge, power and authority.  It was no different in these verses, in which He came “into his own country.”

His own people heard Him teaching and asked “From whence hath this man these things?  and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought in his hands?”  They wanted to know where He got the wisdom that He had.  How did He teach with that kind of authority?  The simple answer to that is that His wisdom, authority and power came from the same place we get our wisdom, power and authority: God and His Word.

Of course, Jesus was “the Word.”  He was the Word incarnate.  We are never going to know the Word like He did because He was the Word, but we can read and study the Word and we can know a whole lot more about it than we do right now.

We are never going to have the authority that Jesus had simply because He was God in the flesh.  We are not.  But we can have a little of that authority when we speak His Word.  Again, His Word gives us what little authority we have.

We rea never going to do the mighty works that He did because, again, He was God in the flesh.  But we can allow Him to do some mighty work through us, if we would step out by faith and be willing to allow Him to use us.

He taught with wisdom and power, and we have that same wisdom and power available to us.  Are we using it?

Faith In Jesus

And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,  When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.  For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.  And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.

And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

Mark 5:25-29, 34

This woman had a physical problem that she could not get rid of.  She had tried everything she knew to try, and she had spent all of her money on doctors and “cures,” but nothing worked.  Then she heard that Jesus was going to passing by and she thought “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.”  She had so much faith the in the healing power of Jesus that she was confident that if she could but touch His clothes, she would be healed.  She knew that getting to Jesus could (and would) make her whole.

She was right.

She touched Jesus’ garment, and “she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.”  All she needed to do was to get to Jesus and she was healed.  But it wasn’t anything necessarily special about the garment of Jesus that healed her.  It wasn’t magic clothing that, when touched, imparted healing.  Jesus Himself, a few verses later, told her why she was healed: “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole…”

It was not the garment that healed this lady, but faith in the Son of God (who happened to be wearing the garment at the time).  That is the same thing that heals us – faith in the Lord Jesus.

The Power of a Testimony

And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.  Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.  And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.

Mark 5:18-20

After he had been healed and helped by the Lord Jesus, the “maniac of Gadara” wanted to go with Jesus as He left.  But Jesus did not allow him to do that, telling him instead to stay there and tell everyone he knew about what had happened.  He was simply supposed to go around to his friends and give his testimony about the Lord helping him and having compassion on him.

He did just this and here are the results: “…all men did marvel.”  He went out and told people about what Jesus had done for him and to him and the people marvelled at his testimony.

We can (and should) do the same exact thing.  One of the most powerful things that we have when it comes to witnessing to others is our testimony.  Simply telling people what the Lord Jesus has done for us is a powerful witness for Him.  We may not have as “extreme” of a testimony as this man had.  We might not have literally run around among the tombs, cutting ourselves and crying out as we were possessed by devils.  But we were “darkness, but now are ye light.”  (Ephesians 5:8)  We were “abiding in death” and now we have eternal life.  We were slaves to sin, but now we have the Holy Spirit within us, helping us and guiding us.

We all have a testimony and we should all be using that testimony to bring people to Him.

A Job For All of Us

And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me.  And he arose and followed him.

Mark 2:14

And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.  Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.

Mark 5:18-20

Here we have a contrast of two different calls that Jesus gave to people.  In the first example, we have Jesus passing by a man named Levi (who we usually know as Matthew) and told him to “follow me.”  And, in a wise decision, he got up and followed Him.  He wasn’t even asking to follow Jesus, but Jesus had a plan for him and that plan involved him following Jesus and becoming a disciple.

On the other hand, we have the second example.  In this case, the demon possessed maniac who was gloriously healed asked Jesus to be allowed to go with Him.  He wanted to follow Jesus and wanted to be where His Saviour was.  But Jesus had a different plan for him: “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.”  He wanted this man to go home and tell all those that he knew all about what Jesus had done for him and to him.

The point of looking at these two examples is to remember that the Lord has a different job for all of us.  What He wants me to do, He might not want you to do.  And what He wants you to do, might not be for me.  While we may not all have exactly the same job, He does give us all something to do.  We need to do the best we can with what He has given us to do and not worry so much about what He has given another to do.  Doing our best at what we have been given is our goal.

I Need Thee Every Hour (Hymn)

I Need Thee Every Hour
Annie Hawks (1872)

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

Refrain
I need Thee, O I need Thee; Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee.

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.

Refrain

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide, or life is in vain.

Refrain

I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises in me fulfill.

Refrain

I need Thee every hour, most Holy One;
O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessèd Son.

Refrain

Of course, we need Him every hour.  But do we realize just how much we need Him every hour?  “Come quickly and abide, or life is vain.”  Without Him, our lives really don’t amount too much.  But with Him, our lives have eternal value.  As the refrain says, we need Him every hour so we need to come to Him – over and over, all the time, in every situation we need to be coming to Him.  We really do need Him.