READING:
One-year plan: Luke 5-7
Two-year plan: Ezekiel 18, James 3
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As Jesus prepared to select the Twelve apostles to follow Him in a more intimate role, He “spent the night praying to God” before He called them out (Luke 6:12). This simple phrase about praying through the night tells us much.
Jesus knew He would place on the shoulders of these men the work of the gospel. They would be His witnesses to the ends of the earth, so He sought the Father’s direction in selecting them. In what might seem surprising choices to us, the Father directed Jesus to men who didn’t always listen, who fought among themselves, who struggled trusting Him, who sometimes failed miserably in their tasks — and who still thought they were the greatest. It seems to me that they were hardly the men that most of us would readily choose if we were picking disciples.
But, perhaps that’s the point of Jesus’ praying. I suspect that if we were to pick disciples on our own, we would pick followers who (1) are most like us; (2) who are the most enjoyable; and (3) who probably take the least effort. In so doing, though, we might well miss the very people in whom God wants us to invest. In our desire to pick those in whom we already see giftedness, we might walk past those whose gifts God intends to bring out later. Our choice thus becomes a choice by sight more than a choice by faith.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Do you prayerfully seek others to lead?
PRAYER: “Lord, help me to pray about investing in others.”
TOMORROW’S READING:
One-year plan: Luke 8-9
Two-year plan: Ezekiel 19:1-20:31, James 4:1-12
MEMORIZATION VERSE (October 16-31)
“Then he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’” (Mark 16:15)