Last Resort or Number One Option?

Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God. John 6:68-69

I remember these words growing up in church. Every Sunday we would sing them right before the gospel lesson was read. These words of Peter are straight forward. Lord to whom else shall we go to? To whom else shall we turn. Jesus offers to us, what no one else has to offer.

Yet, too often we turn to Jesus as our last resort than our number one option. Jesus is viewed as someone we can cry out to in times of trouble. He will help us in our time of greatest need. Certainly, he promises he will help us in time of need, but he wants to be more than our last resort.

Living in a place of so much affluence, it becomes easy to place our dependence on so many other things than Jesus. We see promises of hope in advertising and media. Cures to whatever ails us can so easily be found with just the click of the mouse. But for all the hope that these “shinny things” provide us, we discover their gloss soon begins to fade. We discover we may find a temporary happiness, but miss out on a more lasting joy.

We also turn to other people. In the story of Jesus healing the man at the pool of Bethesda in John 5, Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be made well. The man’s response was that he had no one to help carry him into the water to be healed. This man saw himself as a victim of other people’s lack of compassion. And that was exactly the problem! He was relying upon others to make him better. He blamed his situation on their response.

We are not that much different. Someone sins against us. They let us down in a big way. We are angry and upset at the person. Bitterness grows in our heart. We won’t let go. We fail to forgive them for the hurt that they brought into our lives. We say, “look at what he did to me. It’s all his fault.”

When this happens we are transferring lordship over to this other person. We are allowing them to dictate our attitude. We are giving them control. We let this other person determine our response rather than Jesus.

Who do you turn to? Do you turn to things? Do you turn to other people? Or do you turn to Jesus? Placing our hope in anything less than Jesus will lead to frustration and disappointment. Jesus wants to be our number one option so he doesn’t need to be our last resort.