I have a habit of ranking problems. My system resembles the triage setup at the site of an emergency. I’ll slap green, yellow, or red bands on problems, declaring which are fit for help and which I can handle just fine. Red is for sure going to Jesus. Yellow will be seen when the all the red has been dealt with. And green? Well, green will get handled with the energy I have left.

In a crisis, it’s efficient. But as a lifestyle, it’s not good.

The family emergency? The middle of the night phone call? The questionable results of the medical scan? Those are definitely going to Jesus. And if everything else is going well, then the dilemma at work, the frustration toward a friend, or the quiet fear of the future might get taken to Jesus as well.

But the hand I burned on the stovetop? The overwhelm I feel when the number of copies I need to make is more than the amount of time I have before school? The calendaring conundrum of scheduling home repairs? I don’t “bother” Jesus with those. I hold them close and squash them down, and I handle them in my own way and my own strength.

I deny myself the help of Christ because those problems seem too small or insignificant. I run myself ragged, trying to prove myself capable, and eventually, I break under the tiny trials because the One who came to save the world also cares deeply about the details of my daily life.

Very early in His earthly ministry, Jesus entered Capernaum and began teaching (Luke 4:31). Capernaum was a small, lakeside town along the Sea of Galilee. While Jesus was teaching, a demon-possessed man came, and the demonic spirit cried out, taunting Jesus (Luke 4:34). Jesus rebuked the spirit, and drove the demon out of the man, restoring his health and sanity.

Luke reports, unsurprisingly, that the people were filled with wonder and amazement, marveling that Jesus was able to command even the spirit world with such power and authority (Luke 4:36-37).

When Jesus left the synagogue, He entered Peter’s home, where Peter’s mother-in-law had a fever. When He entered, “they appealed to him on her behalf” (Luke 4:38).

Now, in my triage system, I would have been trying to decide whether her fever was high enough to warrant an appeal to Jesus. I would have been weighing her illness against the severity of the need of the demon-possessed man. I would have been trying to decide whether her body was headed toward recovery, and only if she seemed to be getting worse would I have bothered Jesus with the need.

And there is the problem: that pesky word—bothered.

I am still tempted to try not to bother the Christ.

Was the Man of Christ bothered by this woman’s need? No. To my surprise, the Spirit-breathed Word of God doesn’t record how sick she was, how long it had been, or if they had tried any simple remedies to deal with the fever themselves. The Word of God only records that Jesus went, stood over her, and rebuked the fever (Luke 4:39).

Peter’s mother-in-law was healed, and she stood up and began to serve (Luke 4:39).

The Man of Christ treated the sick woman the same way He treated the demon-possessed man. He rebuked what was harassing her, and He set her free. And after that, it says that all those who were sick “with various diseases” were brought to Him, and Jesus healed them.

Why do I think the Spirit of Christ would respond any differently to me?

Why do I think He expects me to measure my requests and prove their significance before I lay them at His feet? Why do I think He expects me not to bother my Savior?

A Day is coming when the Man of Christ, who humbly walked among our humanity, will return in all His glory. When He does, He will end sickness, death, and disease. Every single solitary thing that is out of line with His perfect design for His creation will be rebuked, and Jesus will, with the compassion He had for this woman, restore us all.

Jesus will set right everything that has gone wrong.

Until that Day, we still get to come to Jesus. We get to cry out to Him. He hasn’t left us here to “make the best of it,” or to “look on the bright side” or to “triage our needs.”

Instead, we are invited to lay before Him with our fevers, regardless of their severity. We are invited to find Him faithful to meet our desperate and daily needs.

One day Christ will finally, fully rebuke all that harasses God’s children.

On this side of the final restoration, some fevers will still spike, but the Spirit of Christ will stand by our bedside ‘til we’re well.

Respond

Take a moment now to invite the Spirit into any problems that you may have dismissed as too small or insignificant to ask Him into before. Confess that you have been trying to handle them on your own, and intentionally invite the Holy Spirit into those specific places in your life. Ask Him for His perspective, His intervention, His wisdom, and His presence.

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These devotionals are a sample from Cody’s upcoming book Jesus Beside Her. If you would like to receive more information when the book is released, please sign up to hear from her.