No Limo Ride

Reading: Mark 8

"'I feel compassion for the multitude because they have remained with Me now three days, and have nothing to eat; and if I send them away hungry to their home, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come from a distance.'" Mark 8:2-3

Evaluation:

These people had been with Jesus for three days and did not have any food. For many of the them, they would have to travel a good distance to arrive at a place where they would be able to prepare a meal. Jesus knew they did not have the strength to make it back.

Application:

If I spend time with Christ my needs will be met. God knows my spiritual and physical needs. He knows my spiritual and physical limits. If I stay in pursuit of Him I will find that He will always take care of me. But this is not as easy as it seems.

My faith is weak and my flesh is stout. In the midst of being needy my most primal of instincts take over and I struggle to maintain proper perspective. Anger, frustration, and desperation can take control of my emotions and I am capable of doing and saying some nasty things in a moment of great need, stress or tension.

As I listen to the voice of my God this morning I hear Him saying, "Have you not seen? Do you not yet understand? Why do you torment yourself over your need or the things you lack? Lay down your life for me and you will find life beyond what you could ever imagine."

Prayer:

Father in this text you describe following after You as taking up my cross and walking towards You. That is not what I naturally want. My honest desire is that following after You be more like getting into a stretched limo and going on a great adventure.

My expectations of what it means to follow after You are often based more on my heard heart than they are on the truth of Your word. I pray that You soften my heart to see You in truth. I pray that my will be broken so that I may be willing to endure the cross to pursue Your path. I pray that my mind be consumed with dreams that only point towards the Kingdom that is to come.