Are We Faithfully Focused On What Comes Next?
Good Morning Friends,
In today’s scripture Jesus covers the waterfront from helping, healing, hunger, hope and health and should prompt us to realize just how fearfully and wonderfully made we are as individuals and as ministry teams. And the same goes for football games as last night’s Super Bowl clearly showed. The text as well as the game demonstrates a bit of the relationship between faith, grace, hard work and creatively planning a way to succeed. And make no mistake about it, they both assume that we need support and encouragement to be true to the cause for we are in the middle of a battle even though Jesus is walking on water. And no, Brady is not Jesus even though he did bring his team back from seemingly insurmountable odds to victory. But the drama of game and text does prompt us to ask this question about our struggle in the knockdown world in which we live. Are We Faithfully Focused On What Comes Next?
Scripture: Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray. When evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea. He intended to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
Mark 6:45-56 (NRSV)
Message: Today’s devotional speaks to the struggles and storms that come into our life, those times when we experience such opposition that we wonder if we will ever get anything accomplished. Rowing against the winds of the world we wonder if Jesus is going to pass us by…that it might be His intention to meet us on the other side of our struggle and not in the middle of the storm. It is in this storm that we experience the positive power of desperation, when we come to the end of self and invite God and His joy and love and light into our boat. The struggle facing Jesus and His disciples was real and formidable. Jesus had just been rejected in His own home town. His cousin, John the Baptist had just had his head served up on a platter by the government and the disciples were struggling in the face of even amazing miracles, like healings and the feeding of the multitudes, to have enough faith to keep them going. It is in the middle of this emotional storm that Jesus goes up to the mountain to pray. Maybe Jesus was praying for deliverance but I do not think so. I think Jesus knew the power of the struggle and its purpose in helping us to experience God. That is why I think Jesus prayed for the disciples and us. He told them in the storm to take courage and the message is the same for us…Friends, we are to focus on our faith and be touched by the power of Jesus. That is what heals us. That is what keeps us going. There is hope in tomorrow and next year and the decades to come. One game is done but the story goes on and on if we keep believing.
Pray we realize that Jesus will pray for us even though we cannot see or comprehend what is happening in our lives. Pray in our prayers we not only talk to God but also listen for a response. Pray we begin to see supernaturally but have no illusions of self-sufficiency. Pray that despite how terrifying God can be we are reassured that Jesus comes to us with love and compassion. Pray we realize that if our faith is focused on what we really desire amazing things can happen. Pray we each live out a deep and passionate faith in Christ connected in the journey to each other in service to God. Pray we each bring our own unique talents and perspectives blended together, shaped in response to our call to discipleship. Pray that even though we face countless demands upon our time, energy and resources we are faithfully focused on Jesus and keep rowing. Pray in the middle of the struggle that Jesus gets in the boat and gets us to where we need to be. Pray we realize that Jesus is the real Comeback Kid.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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