Talitha Koum

Lately, the Lord’s been teaching me a lot about His promises and about initiative. Today, I’ve been writing some of it out as a Bible study I’m leading for a youth group tomorrow night, and while working on it and listening to Spanish worship music with our cooks as they prepare dinner, I figured I’d turn it into a blog too. So here’s a bit of that.
 
 
Initiative– what’s yours and where does it come from?
 
“For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not waver between “Yes” and “No.”… as God’s ultimate “Yes,” he always does what he says. For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.” 2 Corinthians 1:19-20
 
Christ was God’s ultimate promise, which we live by, and because of Him, we have so many other promises, so many implications on our lives.
 
“God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?” Numbers 23:19
 
God keeps His promises. Always. The main one was Jesus, and look what Jesus did:
 
“While he was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. They told him, “Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.” But Jesus overheard them and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.” Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn’t let anyone go with him except Peter, James, and John (the brother of James). When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and wailing. He went inside and asked, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.” The crowd laughed at him. But he made them all leave, and he took the girl’s father and mother and his three disciples into the room where the girl was lying. Holding her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Little girl, get up!” And the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around! They were overwhelmed and totally amazed.” Mark 5:35-42

The people thought she was dead, but Jesus saw her potential and knew she was not dead, so He gave her life. Don’t let people think you are dead; let them see the life of Christ in you, live out the promise He’s given you. Jesus said, “Little girl, get up” and she did. She didn’t get up on her own strength, Jesus made her capable.

We are capable of whatever He tells us, because He makes up able.

“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” “O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!” The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!” Jeremiah 1:5-8
 
Just like God saw the potential in Jeremiah and promised him He would make him able, and just like Jesus saw life in the little girl and gave that to her, He sees our potential and makes us able. He knew us before we were formed in our mothers’ wombs, He sees who we truly are even when others, or even we ourselves, don’t see it. He promises to make us able if we have faith, if we trust Him, and if we keep walking. We have His promises, we know that He provides what He promised and makes us capable of being used by Him. And He does not lie.
 
What’s our response? It’s certainly not to be lazy or complacent and sit around being satisfied with where we are in our relationship with Him. There’s always a higher place to go. Faith leads to action. We work out our faith and show that; we live like we have His strength, His power, His promises, His initiative—because we do! We say “yes” to His “yes”; we say “Amen” to His promises and what He asks of us.
 
When He says, “Little girl, get up,” we get up. He says that to us everyday. “Lindsey, get up,” “(your name here), get up.”
 
Our initiative to “get up”, to live for Him, comes from God’s promises, from Christ and all His implications on our lives. Since we know He makes us capable, He sees our full potential, and has His absolute best in mind for us, we can choose, everyday, to “get up”, to say “yes” to His “yes”, and to do what it takes to reach those promises with Him. We let this initiative lead our lives.
 
It takes effort, it takes conscious steps and consistency. God wants us to be entirely His, and it requires paying close attention to keep ourselves fit. Just like our hearts can’t take a day off of beating in order for us to live, we can’t take a day off from our spiritual lives, from our walks with Christ—we always keep walking; we always rely on those promises.
 
“Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8
 
There’s that word again- promise. And like we said before, God always keeps them. Our part in seeing them fulfilled is training ourselves, walking with Him. When we train ourselves spiritually, when we focus on our relationship with Christ, we are saying “yes” to His promises, agreeing with Him, saying “Amen” for His glory—we accept His strength and power to do all these things.
 
This is how we live out the call, the specific promise, He’s given us, whatever that may be for us individually. We “get up” again and again and live off the initiative of what He’s promised He has in store for us. He tells us to “get up” because He knows who He made us to be, He sees our potential, and He knows all the promises that we are living for. He believes in us, and we take the initiative to believe in ourselves, because we believe in Him.
 
God promised us Jesus, who promises us life (because He is life), so let’s get up and live it!
 
 
I know these thoughts are jumbled and might not flow too gracefully as you read them, but I’m trusting that tomorrow, when I “get up”, He’ll give me the grace and His words will flow out of me.
 
“Talitha Koum!” “Lindsey, get up!”