Forget about your “Crippled Feet” and Enjoy the Riches of Christ on the Table with the Saints

May we be those who forget about our “crippled feet” and simply enjoy the riches of Christ on the table together with the saints!

As believers in Christ, we have been called and qualified by God to be at His table enjoying His riches; we should not look at ourselves or self-introspect but look away unto Jesus and enjoy the riches on the Lord’s table – simply enjoy the Lord, partake of Him, and eat the feast spread before us! Amen!

In many ways we are like Mephibosheth – we start far away from God, but He sends some people to preach the gospel to us and bring us to His house to eat at His table with His family, and He restores us to our lost possessions, to our inheritance.

In dealing with Mephibosheth, David had the same heart as God does; he was compassionate and kind, and there was no condemnation or criticism in him. Instead of condemning Mephibosheth because of his background and origin, David raised him and put him at his table.

Instead of criticizing Mephibosheth because he was lame, crippled in both his feet, David simply sat him at his table – Mephibosheth put his feet under the table and enjoy the meal on the table.

Mephibosheth might have thought, as we may also do, that David wants to punish him or put him to death, so he thought he would be David’s servant at best; however, David expressed God’s heart’s desire by just bringing him to his table with no condemnation.

This is what God did to us; for the sake of Christ and because of Christ, God qualified us for an allotted portion of the saints in the light.

None of us believers in Christ has any merit before God; we did not initiate our seeking after God but rather, God drew us to Himself and sent men to “fetch us”.

What a mercy that He reached out where we were and brought us out of a desolate place, out of a dry place with no grass, to a place where we can feast with Him!

Just think about your experience of coming into the church life where we eat, drink, and breathe in Jesus; before coming into the church life, we wandered in the wilderness, not being satisfied and not finding our home.

But praise the Lord, He brought us into the church life in the Lord’s recovery, and now we are at home; here we’re with all the saints at rest, we enjoy Christ, and we learn to live Christ and minister Christ to one another.

In the church life, Christ is everything to us, and He is becoming us, even us ourselves, until the church as the one new man has Christ as its life and person. Wow, what a God we have!

Though we were dead in sins and offenses, He came, died for us, and loved us to the uttermost; seeing His dying love, we open to Him and receive Him as our Savior and our life, and now we’re at His table, enjoying His riches with the saints. Hallelujah, we are in a heavenly dream!

Though our Feet are Crippled, we Put them under the Table and Enjoy the Riches of Christ on the Table

Spiritually speaking, we believers in Christ are all like Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson – we are crippled in our feet (2 Sam. 4:4).

Yes, David did bring him to his table and he did restore all his father’s land to him, but this didn’t change the fact that Mephibosheth was crippled in both his feet.

Although Mephibosheth dined with the king often, his two feet still remained lame (9:7).

He was disabled in both his feet; these days we don’t use the word crippled or lame, for it is somewhat derogatory.

Mephibosheth was disabled in both his feet, he was incapacitated; nowadays disabled persons have quite a lot of means to help them but in those days if both your legs were injured and not working, that was a serious thing.

In the New Testament, we see another man who was paralyzed in both his feet; he tried so many times to go down to the water when an angel would come and stir the water, but never succeeded.

He was impotent, lame, and unable to do anything. This is what and who we are; in ourselves, we can’t do it.

Even after being a Christian for a while, we still are “crippled” – we want to do the good but can’t, we want to fulfill the requirements of God, but we cannot do it.

Many times we exclaim as Paul did in Rom. 7, Wretched man that I am – who will deliver me from the body of this death?

We may try to keep the law, obey God’s word, and do what the Bible tells us to do, but we soon realize that we’re crippled in both our feet – we can’t do it.

Just like Mephibosheth, though God brought us into His house to enjoy Him at His table and restored us to our possessions, we are still crippled.

What we need to do, however, is not look at our crippled feet but look at the riches on the table and enjoy Christ.

After Mephibosheth received grace from David, he looked only at the riches on David’s table; he tucked his feet under the table and didn’t look at them – he focused on the food on the table.

If we look at ourselves, we discover that we’re lame and we become discouraged; however, we need to look away unto Jesus, looking to Him to enjoy Him in all His riches.

He is so rich and vast for our enjoyment; He has been processed and consummated, and there are universally vast riches of Christ to be enjoyed with the saints.

May we put our crippled feet under the table and just enjoy the riches of Christ on the table.

When we sit at His table, we can only see the riches of Christ on the table, not our crippled feet under the table.

Like Mephibosheth, we can dine at the King’s table even though we are still crippled. We are not fully healed yet; we’re in the process of being healed.

The more we eat the riches on the table, the more we enjoy the riches of Christ, and the more we are saved and healed.

At this time, however, our two feet are lame, but they are under the table.

We cannot even walk in a proper way before God; many times we fall, we stumble, and we can’t advance.

But thank the Lord, we are now at His table enjoying the riches of Christ as our food and drink, as our satisfaction and rest.

After we have been saved, we should forget about our “crippled feet” and sit at the table of our King, Jesus Christ, to just enjoy Him in all His riches with all the saints (Rom. 14:17; Neh. 8:10).

The problem with many of us is that we like to push away from the table every few minutes and still take a look at our crippled feet.

We like to pay attention to our condition more than looking at the riches on the table.

Whenever we look at ourselves, we discover that we are lame and we become discouraged (see Song of Songs 2:8 – 3:5).

Even after all these years, our feet are still crippled; even after being a Christian for a long time, we may still fall and make mistakes and be discouraged.

But the Lord is right there with us at the table: we should only look at the riches on the Lord’s table and enjoy them (Eph. 3:8).

Every Lord’s day when we come to the Lord’s Table, we should think not of how bad our week was, how many failures we had, and how much we failed the Lord; we should simply confess our sins and apply the Lord’s blood, enjoy His forgiveness, and lift up our eyes to enjoy Him!

May we lift up our eyes from our lameness, from our crippled feet, and just enjoy Jesus. He is so rich and so available for us to enjoy.

What God has spread out for us is wonderful, rich, and sweet; we simply need to eat (John 6:50-51, 53-57; Matt. 8:11; 22:2; Rev. 19:9).

The more we look at our crippled feet, things don’t get better; rather, we get more discouraged.

But the more we look at Christ and enjoy the riches of Christ on the table, the more we are saved and healed.

The more we eat Christ as the all-inclusive One with the saints, the more we are healed and saved.

Lord Jesus, we want to lift up our eyes from ourselves, our failures, and our mistakes, and simply focus on You as the One who is so rich and so available for us to enjoy! Hallelujah, we have been invited to the table of the King, and we can put our “crippled feet” under the table and enjoy the riches of Christ on the table! Yes, Lord, we choose to enjoy You in all Your riches with the saints right now. We confess our sins and mistakes, we apply the precious blood of Christ, and we receive God’s forgiveness by faith. Amen, we come forward to God right now to enjoy the riches of Christ with the saints at the Lord’s table! We refuse to look at ourselves: we set our gaze on You, Lord Jesus, for You are so rich, so wonderful, so available, and so sweet! We love You, Lord Jesus!

We need to Turn from Self-Introspection and Look away unto the Lord to Enjoy His Riches with the Saints

God loved us from the foundation of the world, and He still loves us today; He loved us before we were saved, and He still loves us today.

Based on God’s love and because of Christ, we can come to God, be reconciled to Him, and eat and drink with Him at His table.

And this is not only initially when we believed into the Lord; we are saved by grace both initially and continually.

Though sometimes we Christians may feel high and at other times low, though we may fail so many times, we can still come to the Lord, apply His blood, receive His forgiveness, and enjoy the riches of Christ set before us.

We are saved by grace initially, and we are also kept in this salvation by grace. The condition for our salvation is also the condition for our preservation; it is all by grace.

We are saved by Jesus and Jesus is the One who keeps us to the end.

In ourselves we are lame, we have crippled feet, and we fail so many times; but when we look away unto Jesus, He is both the Author and the Perfecter of our salvation (Heb. 12:2; 2:9).

We need to turn away from self-introspection and look away unto the Lord Jesus.

May we put our feet under the table and leave them there, and may we just go on enjoying the Lord.

We were sinners and sinful before we were saved, and we are still sinful after the Lord saved us; we are saved by grace.

Therefore, we should not fall into the trap of self-introspection, trying to dig out what is wrong here and there, trying to shine our own light on what we did and what happened to us, etc.

What we need is the Lord’s shining and not our self-introspection. Self-introspection is a killer in our Christian life.

May we come to the Lord for His shining, and may we refuse to self-introspect.

When the Lord shines, we can confess our sins and He cleanses us from every sin; the result is that we enter into more fellowship with the Lord. but if we do some kind of self-diagnosis, this leads to more problems and more condemnation.

Satan wants us to self-introspect, for in this way we do his work for him; he is ready to accuse us, accuse God, and accuse others also.

Self-introspection invites Satan’s accusation; this may cause us to do a free fall, spiralling down into hopelessness and despair.

May we turn from self-introspection and look away unto the Lord.

As He shines on us, may we look to Him as the shining One; may we look to the Lord Himself and not to ourselves.

God has spread a rich table before us; the riches of Christ are so available for us to enjoy, and we just need to take and eat.

Our two feet are lame, but they are under the table; we just eat what is on the table – we just enjoy the riches of Christ.

May we look only at the riches and the grace that God has spread before us so that we may be peaceful and our hearts would be satisfied (Matt. 5:6; 14:20).

If we look at ourselves and self-introspect, we become more worried, anxious, and sad; if we look to Jesus and enjoy the riches of Christ available for us to enjoy, we will be peaceful and our hearts will be satisfied.

May we make a choice before the Lord concerning this and tell Him,

Lord Jesus, we choose to turn away from self-introspection and simply look away unto the Lord! Amen, Lord, we look away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, the One who initiated our faith and who will perfect it! Infuse us more with Yourself, dear Lord! Give more of Yourself to us. Keep us enjoying You as the riches of God for our supply and sustenance. Amen, Lord, we look not to ourselves but to the riches and the grace that God has spread before us! We refuse to look at our failures – we confess our sins and shortcomings, and we come to the Lord to enjoy the riches of Christ with all the saints! Amen, Lord, keep us in a peaceful situation, having our hearts satisfied by enjoying Jesus Christ with the saints at the table the Lord has spread before us!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 18, pp. 287-288, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of 1 and 2 Samuel (2021 winter training), week 10, entitled, David, Mephibosheth, and the Kindness of God.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – When I fell and was made lame, / My dear King Jesus came; / He searched for me and said, “Where is he?” / When I fell on my face, / He said, “Do not be afraid; / I will surely show kindness to thee.” / I look away from my crippled feet! / I enjoy His riches of kindness! / I eat food at His table continually! / For by grace I have been saved! / Mercy reached me! / I don’t look at my crippled feet; / I enjoy the presence of my King! (Song on, I Look Away From My Crippled Feet!)
  – Look away! O look away! / Look to Jesus now today! / Look away from everything unto Jesus, / Look away from everything to Him! / Look away from all around—Hallelujah, / Look away from all the strife and din; / Look away where peace is found—Hallelujah, / Look away from everything to Him. (Hymns #1206)
  – O what a shame—when Christ with all His riches, / Has come into the world, life to supply— / That man would live, not by Him, but by teachings, / So powerless these riches to apply. / But all we need to do is eat the Lord; / He’s marvelous, He’s wonderful! / And as we eat, we’re inwardly restored; / Christ grows in us, grows to the full. (Hymns #1110)