Someone is Me

So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said. Joshua 14:12

A certain movie scene from a few years ago has always stuck with me. In it, two men, while driving, came across a family who’d just been in a car accident. One of the men wanted to stop and help, but the two were in a hurry and so the other said, “Someone will come along”. To which the first man replied, “Someone already has”.

As I said, that’s stuck with me, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately as I pray. I spend the first half hour of every day in prayer, working my way through a long list of people in my life. As I pray for those in need, it’s not uncommon for me to pray something like this – God, use this terrible struggle to show him his need for you. Please show him your love so that he may find joy, peace, and recovery in a healing relationship with you.

I think my hope is that God would miraculously reach down and zap that man (or woman) with his Holy Spirit, touching his life in such a way that he would find faith and recovery. Looking back to my own journey of faith and recovery though, I must admit that God used many different people to point me to him. All those people had one thing in common – They obeyed God, showing me the love and truth that God had shown them. They didn’t sit back and pray that someone else would come along. They realized that they were the someone I needed, and they served as God’s hands and feet.

Caleb illustrated this behavior in today’s passage. In the story, Caleb believed it was God’s will for him to inherit Hebron, part of the promised land. So, he went to Joshua, asking for it. He didn’t then just sit back, waiting for God to miraculously deliver Hebron to him. Rather, he executed God’s will, conquering the land himself. He understood God’s will and he went out and did it.

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that (James 2:15-16)? I can pray for a brother’s need every day for 10 years, but if I could meet that need and refuse to do so, my prayer is simply an excuse to be disobedient. When I pray that God would reveal his love and truth to someone in need, God looks to me and says, “Go”. When I say, “Someone will come along”. God says, “Someone has already come along. That someone is you”.