Help — Then Withdraw


This Sunday at The Donelson Fellowship (8:45 and 10:15), I’m planning to speak from Luke 5 on the simple story of Jesus healing a man who was covered with leprosy. What suprised me is how quickly Jesus “withdrew” after helping the man. He healed him, told him what to do, and then “withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”

It’s interestingthat Jesus didn’t hover over this newly-healed leper to see if he did as commanded. There’s no indication that Jesus checked up on him or nagged him. Jesus did what He could and then moved on.

Sometimes we try to help someone and then we have to withdraw and let the Holy Spirit work in their lives. This has been a very hard lesson for me to learn, because I want to move into someone’s life and fix things. We want to hover over people and make sure they stick with the program. But sometimes we have to do what we can and move on and not let ourselves be held hostage to their situation. Maybe it’s your child or your husband or a friend from work. We have to do what we can and then move on and let the Holy Spirit do the hovering.

PS – If you can’t make it to the services, you can read, watch, or listen online at www.donelson.org.