Happy Monday! Today is September 23, 2024. Our church offers a cry room for fussy babies and a prayer room where students can spend quiet time with the Lord. Similarly, we encounter both kinds of spaces in our daily lives. How much time we spend in each will shape our future. Which room do you visit the most? Read on...
Today's Reading:
Daniel 11,12; Luke 6
Scripture
“But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. Jesus went out to a mountainside and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated as Apostles …” (Luke 6:11-13)
Observation
In the past three chapters, Jesus is repeatedly attacked by religious leaders. Then, in chapter 4, we see the devil’s temptations, and if that weren’t enough, naysayers in Jesus’ hometown oppose Him until "all in the synagogue were filled with rage." Later, He arrives at Simon’s house for dinner, only to find that "all who were sick with various diseases were brought to Him."
In the next chapter, the Pharisees strike again, accusing Him of breaking the Sabbath. A man with a paralyzed hand was present (we don’t know if the Pharisees planted him there or not). Maybe they knew Jesus wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to help a hurting man. Regardless, Jesus healed him, and once again, the place was filled with rage!
I wonder how Jesus must have been feeling by then.
Application
Isn’t it interesting that religious people show no outrage over the countless souls headed for hell, yet they’re quick to rage when someone is healed on the Sabbath?
I imagine the human heart of Jesus must have been aching. So, He withdrew to a lonely place in the mountains, but sleep eluded Him. Nevertheless, in that valley of despair, God would birth fresh direction for His ministry. Jesus could have complained and moaned, but instead, He found the prayer room in the valley.
The very next morning, He transformed His followers into a team of twelve—twelve apostles, twelve leaders—perhaps three teams of four: one for Jerusalem, one for Judea, and one for Samaria.
There have been, and will be, times when I find myself in that same "lonely place," where sleep refuses my invitation. I will spend the night either taking a fighting position or a kneeling position. Jesus chose the latter, and from that night came twelve apostles.
Prayer
Dear Father, thank You for showing me that You were not immune from problems. You didn’t sleep, but You didn’t gripe. In the prayer room, You were given the wisdom to marshal and arrange a team whose ministry continues till this day! Remind me that this only happens when I enter the prayer room … not the cry room.
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