“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” – Psalms 139:23-24 NIV
The Bible is full of miracles. Jesus himself performs seven very famous ones. I’m sure you’ve heard of them: water into wine, walking on water, lots of healing. And Jesus, being the master of His own destiny, had the opportunity to stay around for as long as He wanted and continue to do all of these things for us, for the rest of time. Instead he chose a different path, one of love, selflessness, hardship, and ultimately persecution, death, and resurrection.
I’ve always wondered, Why didn’t he stay? Why didn’t he hang around to continue to heal; to continue to serve; to continue to teach? Better yet, why didn’t he wake up one day and wave his hand and rid the world of disease and pain and hurt altogether, and then take us all up to Heaven with Him? It’s notable to me that he could have done all these things, yet he chose not to. He left this world and ascended into Heaven leaving us to do those things ourselves. But he didn’t leave us without first empowering us to carry on his ministry.
There is a famous quote by psychologist Carl Rogers that says, “In my early professional years, I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?”
This is just how Jesus wants it for us. Not doing for us, but empowering us to do for ourselves, while pointing back at Him and honoring and exclaiming Him as the one true source of that empowerment. Everything he did was to show us what was possible for us if we believed in Him.
What Lies Before 