Attitudes Shaped by Grace | Day 35

“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’” (1 Corinthians 12:21, NIV)

Good morning, and welcome to a new day the Lord has made for you. Most kitchens have a jar that will not open. We twist until our palm turns red. We run the lid under hot water, tap it on the edge of the counter, and wrap it in a dish towel for a better grip. Someone across the room says, “Here, let me try,” and we tell them we can handle it. A few minutes later we finally hand it over, and they open it on the first turn.

A stubborn jar is a small thing. Refusing help is not small when it becomes the way we carry our faith, our grief, our worries, and our weaknesses. Many of us were trained to believe that the strongest person in the room is the one who needs no one. The world praises the self made man and the woman who handles it all. It tells us that asking for help means we have failed, that independence is the mark of maturity, and that the safest place to keep a struggle is behind a closed door.

The Words No Part Can Say

Paul wrote to a congregation in Corinth that was comparing spiritual gifts and sorting its members by them. He answered with a picture everyone could understand: the human body. “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’” (1 Corinthians 12:21, NIV). The eye sees. The head thinks and decides. Yet neither one is allowed to dismiss the hand or the feet.

There are two ways we say those words. Some of us say them from strength. We are capable and organized, used to being the one others lean on, and we quietly decide we can do this without the rest of the body. Others of us say the same words from hurt. We pull back, stop answering the texts, skip Bible class, and tell ourselves we are only trying not to be a burden. The words come out softer, but they are the same words: I do not need you.

God addressed this long before Paul did. In the garden, with sin not yet in the world, the Lord said this about the man he had made. “The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’” (Genesis 2:18, NIV). God’s answer that day was marriage. But the verse also shows us how God made us. Being alone was called not good before anything had gone wrong. Needing other people is not a flaw that sin brought in. It is part of the design.

Our “I do not need you” reveals something deeper. We have trusted our own strength, or our own hiding place, more than the care God has chosen to give us through his people. We have treated the body of Christ as optional when God never called it that.

Here is the good news. We did not earn our place in this body, and it never rested on how faithfully we kept showing up. Paul told the same Corinthians how they got there. “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” (1 Corinthians 12:13, NIV). Belonging is the Spirit’s gift, not our accomplishment. Through water and the Word, administered by a called servant of the church, the Holy Spirit joined us to Christ and to everyone else who is in Christ. The body is not a club we joined. It is who the Spirit has made us.

The Lion and the Shepherd

Solomon watched how life works and wrote it down plainly. “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, NIV). Most of us have lived the second half of that verse. We fell, and no one was there, or no one knew, because we made sure no one would know.

Peter tells us why that matters. “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” (1 Peter 5:8-9, NIV).

Predators on the open plain tend to single out the animal that has drifted away from the herd. Our enemy loves to find us tired, ashamed, and alone, and then whisper that no one cares. Peter does not tell us to be braver by ourselves. He tells us to stand firm in the faith and to remember the family of believers who are going through the same kinds of suffering. We are not the only one.

We are not left facing a lion with only our own courage. Jesus spoke words every sheep can hold onto. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11, NIV). The lion prowls, but the Shepherd has already given everything to keep his flock.

Through that good news, the Holy Spirit is loosening our grip on the jar. He makes us willing to be helped, which for some of us is harder than helping. He also makes us watchful for the brother or sister who has gone quiet. Here is a simple habit to carry into the day. When we feel the pull to withdraw, we make one call before we close the door. When someone else has pulled back, we make the call for them. “I have been thinking about you” is enough to remind someone they still belong.

Everything rests on Jesus Christ. He needed nothing from us, and he came for us anyway. He laid down his life for the sheep and for the sins of the whole world, and he took it up again on the third day. Now he gathers his people into one body by his Spirit, and he never turns to any member of that body and says, “I do not want you.” We do not have to fight every lid alone until our hands give out. Jesus carried what we never could, and he has placed people beside us who are ready to say, “Here, let me try.”

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you for not leaving me to walk through this life alone. I confess that I have sometimes told your people, by my pride or by my silence, that I did not need them. I have carried what you meant for others to help me carry, and I have missed the ones who pulled away. Forgive me for the sake of Jesus Christ, who laid down his life for me and for the whole world.

Lord Jesus, you are my good shepherd, and I belong to your flock because of what you have done. Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit, who joined me to your body and keeps me in your Word. When I am tempted to close the door and handle everything myself, give me the humility to reach out. When someone near me goes quiet, open my eyes and give me the courage to call. Guard your people from the enemy who prowls, and keep us standing firm together in the faith. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Thank you for reading this morning. May the Lord put a familiar voice on the other end of the phone for you today, and may you be that voice for someone else. In the next devotion we will look at the members of the body who seem weaker, and at the honor God has given them.

To God be the glory.

Pray, praise, and give thanks, for God is good and His mercy endures forever.

If you received this message and are not on the daily distribution for them via text or know someone you would like to share these messages with, just have them text “add” to 833-779-8793