Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Matthew 8:21 ESV
This past Saturday, I found myself in a quandary. I had registered for a writer’s conference in a town about 60 miles from home and had really been looking forward to the workshops they were offering. But my husband had been ill throughout the night (my husband has a history of getting sick then needing to be medevacked because he spirals so quickly), so needless to say, I was quite nervous about leaving for a few hours even though our son was home with him. At the same time, I had just come down with a fresh bout of gout in my left foot that made it extremely painful to walk. I prayed about the situation and really felt the Lord urging me to attend the conference, trusting that He would take care of both Len and me.
Fast forward to the end of the day, when a friend of mine and I were visiting the conference’s bookstore. One of the vendors began to share her story with us. Let me tell you, she has been through some stuff! There weren’t very many people visiting the bookstore at that time, so my friend and I felt free to engage in a lengthy conversation with her. As we chatted, I noted the pain in this woman’s life – not just in her body but also in her spirit. As we continued to talk, I grew increasingly convinced that she had never experienced a close relationship with Jesus, and I felt the Spirit of God pressing me to pray. When I asked her if it would be okay to pray with her, she nodded and reached out across the table. Clasping both her hands in mine, my friend’s hand over both of ours, we began to pray. In that moment, my heart welled with gladness that I had heeded God’s voice. I was also humbled to think of that God chose me to minister to that young girl. He could have used anyone else, yet God had already prepared that encounter, and I was the broken vessel He used to reach her. (By the way, my husband quickly recovered, and I was able to manage the pain sufficiently to get from meeting room to meeting room. Apparently, there was a battle going on in the heavenlies we knew nothing about, with the enemy determined to stop me from doing God’s bidding. But God prevailed!)
Discipleship – obedience to God’s calling – is never a matter of convenience. It’s a matter of weighing the cost, then stepping out in obedience, knowing that God’s primary calling upon our lives is to further the kingdom of God rather than attending to our own agendas, however important they might appear to us. Discipleship requires an intimacy with God, a state of being so attuned to Him that when He calls, we hear and heed His voice.
My question to you today is the following: Are you willing to step out in faith, regardless of circumstances, trusting God to take care of your concerns and worries, in order to follow His invitation to further the kingdom of God? This man in today’s Scripture could have entrusted his father’s well-being to God (the text almost suggests that his father was on the verge of death, but in that day’s Jewish culture, it was expected of a son that he stay and care for his parents until they died). Instead, he chose to remain and missed out on an incredible opportunity to walk with the Son of God and minister to others. What might you be missing out on by saying ‘no’ or ‘not yet’ to God?
Prayer: Lord, let me daily hear and heed your voice as you invite me to exchange my agenda for yours. Today, and each day henceforth, I invite you to use me as you will. Amen.
Thought: “Invitations from God come with a limited opportunity to respond. Some opportunities to serve Him, if not accepted immediately, will be lost. Occasions to minister to others may pass us by . . . When an invitation comes from God, the time to respond is now.” – Blackaby.