In Romans 15:13, Paul says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
We must be filled so we can overflow. Conversely, if we are empty, we have nothing to give. And yet, how do we fill ourselves up with Jesus when we have the constant needs of our kids, our jobs, our lives?
We do what Jesus did.
In Matthew 14 Jesus is sad because they just beheaded John the Baptist. In verse 13, it says, “When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat to a solitary place.”
But then life happens in the second half of the verse. “Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.”
Get the picture? All you want to do it go to the bathroom and two kids follow you there. You just want to veg out in front of the TV and a kid wakes up. So you do what Jesus did. In verse 14, we see that “when Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.”
That’s what we do. We go meet the need. We’re parents. That’s what we do.
But what if we also did what Jesus did after he met the need? Look at verse 22. It says, “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.”
See what happens? Jesus fought for his time alone with God so he could get recharged. The timing didn’t work at first, but that didn’t stop him. After he did what parents do by meeting the needs of the people around him, He made the disciples get in the boat.
If we want to overflow with joy and peace and hope, we must be filled with joy and peace and hope. It’s that simple. Like Jesus, we need our time to go “up on a mountainside to pray.” How do we do that? We have to “make the disciples get in the boat.”
If you are married, maybe you work it out with your spouse so you can cover for each other. It’s also okay to train your kids to not bother you for ten minutes so you can be refreshed by the Lord. Maybe you get a babysitter for more extended times.
Jesus fought – he fought – for times with His Father so he could refresh Himself, in this case grieve the loss of his friend, and reenergize Himself so He could go out and fight the battles.
If He needs to withdraw, then we desperately need it too. Fight for time alone with God to recharge your life and watch that time help you to be a better parent.
Peace Through Praise Shifts the Culture in Your Home
