Dealing in God's Math
By Rebecca Sieg
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
“Suddenly a leper came and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man, “I am willing”, He said “be clean”. And immediately his leprosy was healed.” Matthew 8:2-3 BSB
I dislike math. Actually that’s a very polite way to say - I hate math. The numbers, the rules, the attention to detail were (and still are) very difficult for me.
My brain has a hard time with math. But lately I have been thinking a lot about math. It’s weird. It’s strange. It’s exhausting. But math - God keeps putting this certain idea about math in my head.
In math, we add to, subtract from, divide by (and the list goes on) to equal the correct amount. We spend our days doing these simple math equations - counting time, measuring distance or spending cash. We hardly think about them.
Yet lately as I read scripture, it’s full of math. The filling up of addition. The pouring out of subtraction. The three-in-oneness of division and multiplication.
We read of a God who counts the hairs on our head, numbers our days, adds His spirit into our empty places and takes from us our burdens.
This is our God. Our God who does math. Our God who deals in equations. Our God who balances our spirit, who sent His Son to equal us out to righteousness.
And just like God deals in math, so too must we work in calculations.
In order to serve others, in effective ways, we must be interested in the equations. When God adds to us, He does so in ways that are particular to our need, ways that cut straight to the heart of the matter.
In Matthew 8, we read of a leper who came to be healed by Jesus. Jesus touched him. A leper, who suffered from a debilitating disease which most likely caused his family to banish Him from their home,
Jesus compassionately touched him. With all the methods available to Jesus to heal the man, he intentionally reached out.
The answer to the equation of this man’s need was to be healed through a personal touch of the Savior.
When we serve others, like Jesus’ served others, we balance out their lives by responding to specific needs in both physical and emotional ways. We work the equation. We pour strength into weakness, companionship into loneliness, restoration into brokenness.
Just like our Father, who meets our needs in exact ways and in correct amounts, we can serve effectively by meeting needs specifically. And in serving in these ways, we point back to the great mathematician, who through the death of His Son, once and for all, balanced out all things and equaled us into righteousness.
Father God, Thank You for Your equations. For equaling us out. Teach us how to do Your math. Open our eyes to people who need the addition of Your love and grace and the subtraction of their debt and guilt. Lord, place on our hearts an equation, a person, and direct our steps to balance it out by serving them as You would. Guide us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
© 2017 by Rebecca Sieg. All rights reserved.
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Originally published Tuesday, 25 April 2017.
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