God Help Me

You may be tired and worn down. There is always something difficult to attend to, something unaccountable for which you had not prepared. What makes it even more confusing is the fact that great beauty resides smack-dab right beside great despair.

We are never wholly living in light without darkness reminding us of it’s presence. Thankfully, we are never wholly living in darkness without light also reminding us of it’s presence.

There is a verse in the Bible that reads like this, “And if you extract the precious from the worthless, You will become My spokesman.” It is found in the book of Jeremiah in chapter 15, in the middle of verse 19, in the New American Standard translation. 

I challenge you to set about extracting the precious from the worthless.

Focus and take heed and impart all that is right and good in the midst of all that is not. You may have a lot of trouble in your life, chaos and trauma even, but if you will set your heart to extract the precious from the worthless you will find your perspective raised, your understanding enlarged, and gladness taking hold.

Without this we simply wear out from daily little griefs and sadnesses that beat at the shores of our life as surely the waves on the sand.

Extracting the precious from the worthless requires that we look below the surface of many a thing. It requires that we consider longer and think deeper — that we take heed to pause and not rush to conclusions, “Not quite so quick Sam!” We’ve a few things to consider.

Life, to put it simply, is complicated. Rarely is any one thing just any one thing. Wrapped into every scenario and situation and circumstance is a complexity of actions and motives and failings and best-intentions followed by the uncontrolled and unexpected.

To extract the precious takes heart. And courage. Resolve. Fearlessness. Intention. Lots of it. A courageous heart of intention. Which is exactly what you have. If you dig deep enough, pause long enough, to bring it to the surface of your mind and life.

Give it a go. You can resolve to extract the precious from the worthless.

The second sentence in the verse quoted above reads, “You will become my spokesman.”

So, we might ask, how does extracting the precious from the worthless qualify us to become God’s spokesman? (this passage chronicles God speaking to Jeremiah)

Dare I say, because God is all the time extracting the precious from the worthless. It is the nature of our Lord to pull from what seems hopeless the best within us, the best around us, the best of you and the best of me. If we will let him. If we will agree to this. If we will dare to live the precious that is drawn from the worthless.

We can, after all, stay camped in the worthless. We can talk about it all day long every day for every week for every month for every year till the day we die. No one is going to stop you. But they will stop coming round.

“Extract the precious from the worthless and You will become My spokesman.”

Remain intent on what is bad and wrong and offensive and you will be privileged to encounter more of what is bad and wrong and offensive. The universe is set up in such a way so that you get exactly what you are looking for.

“Extract the precious from the worthless and You will become My spokesman.”

But become intent on what is beautiful and right and kind and you will be privileged to encounter more of what is beautiful and right and kind. What you see is what you get.

And sight, comes from our hearts.

“To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.” Titus 1:15

What are you seeing? How is your heart?

“God I come to you today wanting to find the precious in the worthless, to extract it even. But God I need your help in this. My mind and my conscience see only evil and ugly and despair and sorrow and loss and tragedy and grief beyond all imaginings. I do not have the heart to believe that you can touch and reach the most desperate among us, myself at times included. But today God I say ‘no more’ to this unbelief of who you are, of your goodness, of your love, of your salvation of our lives, of your heart for us. And I ask that you would remake me, my perspective, my attitude, my understanding, my mind, but most of all my heart. Create in me a clean heart that sees your goodness each and every day. Create in me a clean heart that encounters you every step of my life. I cannot do this work myself. It is beyond me. My heart has chasms so deep that I myself do not know all that is there. But you know God. You see my inmost being – and you love me just the same. So begin a new journey in me today God. By the power of your son Jesus Christ begin a new work in me and bring me to wholeness in you. Make me alive in your Spirit, your manner, your Way. May I be one of those who can extract the precious from the worthless and may I live the light of your life each day. Amen”