Leaning on Jesus
Greetings and good morning brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series
where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years,
the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them
with you. This morning we will ponder our lives as we seek to understand the meaning of leaning
on Jesus.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
Leaning on Jesus
"And He said to unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in
weakness." Second Corinthians, Chapter 12, Verse 9.
"Learning to lean, learning to lean, I am learning to lean on Jesus" go the words of the hymn.
Because His grace is sufficient for all our needs, it behooves us to learn to lean on Him. Leaning on
Jesus is the secret to a happy and truly successful life. The Father desires that all of us learn to lean
on His Son, learn to do His divine will.
We start out in life leaning on our parents. Later, we lean on our friends. Then we reach a point in
our lives where we think that we are self sufficient and lean on ourselves. This self sufficiency
causes us to rely heavily on our physical and intellectual abilities; but eventually we realize that
satisfaction of mind and body does not equal soul satisfaction. Our souls cannot lean on material and
intellectual things for an eternal foundation is needed--thus the need to lean on Jesus, who is the
eternal foundation for our souls.
We are slow to discern the true needs of our souls. We put our hopes in one thing after another, ever
increasing our sense of dissatisfaction and disappointment. And no wonder: our souls are a spiritual
phenomenon and can only be satisfied by and through spiritual means. Even after we discern the
need of spiritual support, our minds and bodies rebel against being used for the purposes of the spirit.
But the spirit of the Father is all-powerful and is able to gradually subdue the mind and the urges of
the flesh as we learn to submit to His will.
But for a time, there is war. Our souls experience the paradox where the evil it would not do, it does,
and the good it would do, it does not. There is an inevitable period of confusion-the time during which loyalties are being shifted from the material to the spiritual, from the earthly to the eternal. This period witnesses countless disappointments because the soul drifts towards material goals almost unconsciously. The inertia towards material things is only slowed and finally stopped by conscious, deliberate, and persistent subjection of our wills to the Father' will.
To end this war, we must lean completely upon Jesus. Every urge and desire, every want and need must be subjected to the Father's will. This process must be repeated and executed with each new desire or urge that appears in our minds and souls daily. As we increasingly desire to submit our urges and desires to the Father's will, the spirit of the Father transforms these desires into higher longings of the spiritual world, which effectively transform our souls.
Thus, it is seen that our souls must fall whole-heartedly in love with truth. There exists no other way whereby our souls can sustain these countless disappointments that serve as step ladders on the way to divine perfection. Reacting to small disappointments produces bits of wisdom, while reacting to greater disappointments produces greater wisdom, provided these reactions were according to the Father's will. Only by leaning upon Jesus--the spirit of the Son-the Spirit of Truth--can we stabilize our souls during these periods of intense growth.
"Not my will, but your will be done" is the secret of our souls becoming stable in the midst of instability.Yes, indeed, leaning on Jesus is the secret of peace of mind and happiness in our souls. We must acknowledge our absolute dependence on Jesus and absolute dedication to the way of the Father as revealed in Jesus. No matter how trying our experiences, no matter how disappointing and painful, we must seek to react to the experience the way Jesus does. Leaning on Jesus gradually makes our souls aware of the Father's presence and enables the Father to manifest himself through our lives as we continually submit the desires of our souls to the divine will.
This concludes today's message on understanding the meaning of leaning on Jesus. We hope you find
something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day. Until next time, this
is Dr. James Perry.
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done!
Leaning on Jesus.
