I rarely do this, but today it seems the right thing to do.
I am including a longer-than-normal passage within the text of the Morning Devotion.
You see, we too often say we believe in Jesus but fall short of truly trusting Jesus.
Oh yeah, we sing the words of Matthew 6:33 regarding seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness but then we slip up sometimes and act as if we don’t really believe that all the things we need for living will be added unto us.
We say that we support the work of ministry but is our tithing (10 percent of gross income) contingent upon when our finances are flowing smoothly? Is our volunteering time contingent upon if we have no disruptions in the other areas of our lives?
Is our treating people with kindness, dignity and generosity based on our being treated the same?
We all know that life has problems. Sometimes our problems are the result of other people’s failures.
We don’t best face life with faith if we’re pointing fingers.
It’s much better to point our hearts and hopes toward Jesus.
Believers arguing over who failed doesn’t please Christ, doesn’t encourage the flock and doesn’t build consensus on the best strategy for addressing the need.
He really will work things out for us in the best way if we just keep focusing on imitating His life and doing His will.
Here’s the passage from Mark 8 that stirred and steered my heart this morning. I pray that it does the same for you.
14 But the disciples had forgotten to bring any food. They had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat. 15 As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”
16 At this they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread.
17 Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? 18 ‘You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear? Don’t you remember anything at all? 19 When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?”
“Twelve,” they said.
20 “And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?”
“Seven,” they said.
21 “Don’t you understand yet?” he asked them.
Jesus really is our answer when problems come. He has helped us countless times when nobody else could. We just need to trust Him to care for us as we commit to doing His will.
As always, I love you
Martin
