Are you wretched?

What does wretched look like? As I browsed through many sketches and pictures of people that were poor and homeless, I realized that most of them had one thing in common- the ability to help themselves in some way. Then it hit me. Wretchedness in its worst condition is not only being in extreme distress, but not being able to do anything about it. I then found this photo of a young child in a poverty stricken community.

Wretched is being "in a deplorable state of distress".

The apostle Paul talked of this wretched state we find ourselves in as sinners in Romans 7, where he writes, "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. (Rom 7:23-25)

We, apart from Christ, are indeed sinners, and wretched sinners at that! Me thinks there are too many comfortable sinners out there. I'm a sinner, but I am wealthy, and have need of nothing. I'm a sinner, but I must admit, I'm doing pretty well for myself.

And then there is that judgment upon the lukewarm Laodecians in Revelation 3:17, "

Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
(Rev 3:17-19)

Are you truly wretched?

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

For those that are neither tired, nor poor, there is no need to seek that place of rest, that promised land.

For those that are not wretched, for those that are not homeless, there is no need of a new home.

For those that are not tossed about life's storms, there is no need of a shelter and place of refuge.

Thank God, that for those that are tired and poor, for those that are wretched and homeless, for those that are tossed about by life's storms, there is a place of rest and a place of refuge. In the arms of Jesus Christ.

Yours in Him,

Pastor B.

P.S. I'm praying for you