HEALTHY CHURCH: What Are You Allergic To?

      Almost everyone is allergic to something. Whenever I’m asked if I have any allergies, I tend to forget. If my wife Shelby is around, she will remind me that I’m allergic to penicillin. Over the years, people have observed that some individuals seem allergic to hard work, commitment, church, or even integrity. Although none of these are true allergies, it indicates that some people have a strong aversion and will go to great lengths to avoid contact with it. They are always looking for easier options, such as sleeping in rather than doing what they should be doing.

      What are you allergic to spiritually? In A Praying Life, Paul E. Miller said he is allergic to helplessness. “I don’t like it. I want a plan, an idea or maybe a friend to listen to my problem. This is how I instinctively approach everything because I am confident in my own abilities.” Here is the greater challenge of this allergy. God’s Word calls us to pray, and that equals a very healthy awareness of how helpless we are and how much we need Him. Prayer equals helplessness. This means you are willing to admit how much you need God and how you cannot make it without Him. Unfortunately, many of us choose to trust something else more than Him.

      Paul Miller continued, “God wants us to come to Him empty-handed, weary and heavy-laden. Instinctively, we want to get rid of our helplessness before we come to God.” Henry Blackaby reminded us that hard work will make us tired, but that can usually be remedied through some good rest, but “there is a deeper fatigue that goes beyond physical tiredness. There is an emotional exhaustion that comes from experiencing heavy burdens and draining crises.” Isaiah 40:29 says, “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.” Remember, you have not because you ask not.

      Here is some great news. God helps those who ask for help. Psalm 28:7 says, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped:” The Scriptures never say that God helps those who help themselves. Prayer is a loud and clear declaration of our awareness of just how helpless we are and how desperately we need God’s help. A person receives Christ because they accept their complete inability to save themselves and cry out to Him for His salvation. You receive Christ in your weakness, and that is how you follow Him. This flies in the face of a culture that glorifies self-sufficiency.

      Paul Miller stated, “Paul told the Colossians, ‘Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him’ (Col. 2:6). We forget that helplessness is how the Christian life works.” Knowing this is one thing and believing it enough to live it out is another. Allow me to quote Miller one more time on this: “The very thing we are allergic to — our helplessness — is what makes prayer work. It works because we are helpless. We can’t do life on our own.” This is made very clear in Psalm 70:5, “But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying.” Lord, I need you, oh, I need you.

      Are we willing to admit we are in over our heads? Are we willing to humble ourselves and become hungry and thirsty for God’s presence in our lives? Have we begun to trust in our education, knowledge, plans and strategies more than we are willing to cry out to Him in desperation? In Unburdened, Vance Pitman addressed the burden of believing that following Jesus was all about performance. “I thought being a Christian meant constantly striving to measure up.” Here is one of the keys to how he overcame this: “Following Jesus has nothing to do with my ability or strength. It has everything to do with His ability and strength.”

      Does that sound familiar? Paul, in II Corinthians 12, asked God three times to remove a thorn in the flesh. What was the answer? In verse 9, God said, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” But we do not like the idea of being weak. We want to be strong. We reject the idea of being needy because we want to be in control. We are allergic to the concept of being helpless because we want others to see us as resilient, tough, wise and capable. Yet, helplessness is exactly what causes us to first go to God. It enables us to quit telling everyone else what to do and cry out to Him, asking what He wants us to do.

      Vance Pitman continued by stating this in reference to John 5:19 and John 8:28-29: “Jesus modeled what it looks like to live in total dependence on the Holy Spirit through moment-by-moment fellowship with the Father… He often slipped away into the wilderness to spend time with the Father, just the two of them… How much more should this be true of us? If we want to faithfully follow Jesus, we need to daily cultivate a vital relationship with our Father, as Jesus did.” That begins with a deep realization of how dependent we are on Him, and it continues with a deep conviction of repenting of our self-sufficiency.

      What is your goal for 2025? What target are you aiming at? Is it the right target? Are you willing to humble yourself before Him and not focus on performing for Him? Is your bulls-eye intimacy with Christ and getting to truly know Him better, not just knowing about Him? Vance continued, “You don’t create intimacy; you make room for it... You need space to be together. Efficiency, multitasking and busyness all kill intimacy.” May our bullseye be Paul’s goal in Phil. 3:10, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”