Monday 5 July 2021

July 5: Mark 6:7-13
 
Key Verse: Mark 6:8
These were his instructions: ‘Take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.
 
Devotion:
When Jesus went out village to village, He did not just carry on doing the same things, teaching, healing, praying... He laid the ground for the disciples to go out and start to learn to do the same thing by themselves. Jesus knew He was not going to be around forever with the disciples, so He made sure they were prepared for the work which they had to carry on with.
 
He also knew they would face the same uphill tasks as He had to face whilst around their own friends and family – so they went to new places to meet new people and carry on God’s work there. This did not mean they went to the other side of the world to teach others, but they were not in their home towns.
 
Jesus taught them they would have to face new challenges because of this. They would have to seek out the people in the new communities who would accept them and give them space to do God’s work. It would not be very productive if they were to get opposition whatever they tried to do, so finding people who would support and encourage them would be a good starting point.
 
When we go forward to try and do what God wants us to do – we are going to have to find people in the communities who will support the work we know God is asking of us. It is not always going to be easy either – so Jesus was sending out the disciples with little else but what they had with them so they would have to depend on the support of the communities. Being in a vulnerable position is probably going to get you accepted quicker than I you went in with all guns blazing...
 
Points to Ponder:
Do you rush in and try take thing over normally?
 
Will you let God guide you and depend more in others?