As I was doing my morning devotion the thought came to me that our intentions and our desires are in the right place but if we think this journey is at all easy then we need to recondition our minds. If we think that we will be able to stick the course on our own accord then we need to recondition our mind. The bible tells us in Matthew 10:16-24 that our journey as Christ’s disciple is not a walk in the park. So even when our best intentions are to stay in faith, to read our bibles, to pray every day and seek the Holy Spirit, to be determined and to stay in God’s will, it is not going to be easy. We should never get complacent when everything seems “rosy” (and that is how life is) .
We always have to be ready mentally and know that we are not perfect. Less than ideal situations will present themselves, hard situations will present themselves even situations that are ridiculous at times but that is the way through which the enemy will get to us if we are not mentally prepared. We should have in mind always Philippians 4 vs 13, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Do not for a minute think we can do this on our own.
Jesus told his disciples I am sending you like sheep among wolves. He told them not to call undue attention to themselves but exercise wisdom (shrewd as serpents but as harmless as a dove) and do their work in the best way that follows after Christ. Not worrying about being accepted, but move right along if they were not. Knowing our mission and sticking to our mission is our mandate.
We will never be accepted by everyone, but that should never cause any disillusionment in our lives. It is not an easy call; it is not for the faint hearted. This journey requires discipline and a great magnitude of understanding the mission to stay focused. The mission if understood will keep us focused. So when things go awry and causes us to wonder why we are going through the things we are going through. Why we are not rescued, after all, we are children of the most High, it is His duty to keep us sane and happy… That is not how it is. We have to face some hard stuff in life to help open our eyes so we can sift through truth from lies. So we can grow in wisdom and knowledge, so we can have backbones that are rooted firmly in God’s words. So when the storm of life comes we will not ask God to rescue us (although we can) but, we will understand that he has given us the power to either speak to the winds that wish to ravage us or he gives us the grace to sleep peacefully despite the storm. That is where God wants us. That is how we will properly disciple others.
