Bend Your Knees

I want you to stand up, knees straight and try to jump as high as you can. How did it go? Not too high, right? Okay, now bend your knees a little bit and jump. Better? Now bend your knees a lot and jump as high as you can. Wow, I think NASA just picked you up on satellite! The lower we bend, the higher we can jump.

I know this is pretty elementary stuff but sometimes that's where we need to start. If we want to have hope in all of life, we must first bow ourselves low before the Father. Listen to one of my favorite Bible stories...

Matthew 17:14-21 - When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” Jesus said to the crowd, “O unbelieving and perverse generation,how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.

Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. But this kind does not go out except by prayer."

Two quick lessons. First, the dad had tried everything on his own to help his son. You can imagine he had taken him to the village doctor, listened to advice from the neighbors, even asked Jesus' disciples to help but got nothing. Then he turns to Jesus and falls to his knees. He knew this was his last hope. He knelt before Jesus, the only one who could save his son.

Second, the disciples had tried to drive the demon out of the boy but had failed. Guess they thought since they had been hanging around Jesus they could mimic what they'd seen Jesus doing. They left out the most important part - prayer. Prayer is our lifeline to God's power. Prayer is humbling ourselves before God and inviting Him to do the work. It acknowledges that we can't but Jesus can. Prayer is an act of faith.

What are you trying so hard to reach on your own? What are you 'jumping' for? Bend your knees in prayer and watch God lift you up today. With God's help, you'll reach higher than you could ever imagine.