I’ve pulled my share of all-nighters. I’ve finished books started the night before as the sun came up. I’ve chaperoned teen lock ins by snacking all night. I’ve sat up with sick children while fighting stomach bug myself. The closest I’ve ever come to an all night prayer vigil was by the bedside of my son in a children’s hospital in Texas. Still I fought sleep like Jesus’s closest friends, overcome by grief and exhaustion. I couldn’t tell you what I ate, if I ate, or when I ate. I only remember holding his hand and the nurse call switch and alternately praying and quoting scripture, specifically Psalm 139 which Jacob and I had memorized together during his final semester of high school. Jesus began choosing His disciples after an entire night spent communing with the Father in prayer. Can I say the same of times I’ve been faced with weighty decisions?
What about you? Has anything driven you to your knees before the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth? A choice? A crisis? A conflict? A traveling child? An ailing spouse? An uncertain future? Some things are so easy to trust God with, so simple to surrender, but others can feel like the very fabric of our being is beginning to unravel. Sovereign God knit you together in your mother’s womb. There is no need to fear even one misplaced stitch. Surrendering all to Him is not resignation. His perfect will is being accomplished and will continue into eternity. Surrender brings peace that surpasses our ability to understand, comfort enough to share, and unexplainable joy.
The twelve apostles may have been a motley crew but they were handpicked by the Son of God. Anyone including the religious leaders would have expected Him to call His followers from among the religious elite. How many of those teachers of the Law who went out to see Him early during His ministry might have started out hoping to learn from Him, especially when they saw His miracles? How might the fact that He chose fishermen and tax collectors with only a rudimentary knowledge of scripture (although significantly more then most boys of their age in our day) account for the cynicism we’ve come to associate with the Pharisees?
““But the Pharisees and their teachers of the law complained to Jesus’ disciples.
They said, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor.
Sick people do.
I have not come to get those who think they are right with God to follow me.
I have come to get sinners to turn away from their sins.
Then Jesus gave them an example.
He said, “No one tears a piece out of new clothes to patch old clothes.
Otherwise, they will tear the new clothes.
Also, the patch from the new clothes will not match the old clothes.
No one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins.
The wine will run out, and the wineskins will be destroyed.
No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.
After drinking old wine, no one wants the new.
They say, ‘The old wine is better.’ ””
Luke 5:30-32, 36-39 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/luk.5.30-38.NIRV
The religious leaders considered themselves experts on the Law of Moses. Jesus came to remind them that it was actually the Law of God given through Moses and that during the years since Moses, the heart of God’s Law had been lost amid mounds of legalese and man made traditions. His short time on earth would be spent pouring into empty vessels, not ones already full of themselves.
“The Lord says, “These people worship me only with their words.
They honor me by what they say.
But their hearts are far away from me.
Their worship doesn’t mean anything to me.
They teach nothing but human rules that they have been taught.
So once more I will shock these people with many wonderful acts.
I will destroy the wisdom of those who think they are so wise.
I will do away with the cleverness of those who think they are so smart.”
How terrible it will be for people who try hard to hide their plans from the Lord!
They do their work in darkness.
They think, “Who sees us?
Who will know?”
They turn everything upside down.
How silly they are to think that potters are like the clay they work with!
Can what is made say to the one who made it, “You didn’t make me”?
Can the pot say to the potter, “You don’t know anything”?”
Isaiah 29:13-16 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/isa.29.13-16.NIRV
“But the Pharisees and experts in religious law rejected God’s plan for them, for they had refused John’s baptism.”
Luke 7:30 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.7.30.NLT
By refusing John’s baptism, a baptism of repentance, of turning back to God, the Pharisees and experts of the Law had rejected the clear purpose of God. They would have nothing to do with John’s baptism because they felt superior to him in every way, but their pride caused them to miss God’s plan for them. As often as they sought Jesus out, they had every opportunity to believe and repent. Instead they constantly looked for ways to entrap Him, and in the end, they judged themselves more righteous even than Jesus by condemning Him to a cross.
“The message of the cross seems foolish to those who are lost and dying.
But it is God’s power to us who are being saved.
It is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of those who are wise.
I will do away with the cleverness of those who think they are so smart.” (Isaiah 29:14)
Where is the wise person?
Where is the teacher of the law?
Where are the great thinkers of our time?
Hasn’t God made the wisdom of the world foolish?
God wisely planned that the world would not know him through its own wisdom.
It pleased God to use the foolish things we preach to save those who believe.
Jews require signs.
Greeks look for wisdom.
But we preach about Christ and his death on the cross.
That is very hard for Jews to accept.
And everyone else thinks it’s foolish.
But there are those God has chosen, both Jews and Greeks.
To them Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom.
The foolish things of God are wiser than human wisdom.
The weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when God chose you.
Not many of you were considered wise by human standards.
Not many of you were powerful.
Not many of you belonged to important families.
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.
God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
God chose the things of this world that are common and looked down on.
God chose things considered unimportant to do away with things considered important.
So no one can boast to God.
Because of what God has done, you belong to Christ Jesus.
He has become God’s wisdom for us.
He makes us right with God.
He makes us holy and sets us free.
It is written, “The one who boasts should boast about what the Lord has done.” (Jeremiah 9:24)”
1 Corinthians 1:18-31 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/1co.1.18-31.NIRV
“One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them.
But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him.
When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples.
He said to them, “Let the children come to me.
Don’t stop them!
For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.
I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”
Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them.”
Mark 10:13-16 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mrk.10.14-16.NLT
None of us is immune to being full of ourselves. Too often we forget Who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, in Whose power we live and move and have our being, choosing instead to remember what we have done for God’s kingdom. Self importance puffs up its chest with superiority. Jesus’s disciples had forgotten what they were when Jesus called them and Jesus called a little child over to remind them, a child whose parent they had just scolded for bothering Jesus.
Nothing can humble you quite like a little child. Becoming a mother and now a grandmother is undoubtedly my favorite calling on my life, but I’ll admit it is still one of the most challenging. Nothing can prepare you for the immediate love and adoration you feel for these tiny ones created in the image of God that look an awful lot like you. Nothing can prepare you for the emotions they evoke when they resemble you a little too closely in ways that make you squirm! Your heart can swell with pride in one beat and break in the next, but Jesus said the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like little children. Childlike, not childish, as I read recently.
Available aces accomplished.
Ordinary ousts overqualified.
Teachable trumps talented.
It’s not who I am, but Whose I am that matters.
“The leaders saw how bold Peter and John were.
They also realized that Peter and John were ordinary men with no training.
This surprised the leaders.
They realized that these men had been with Jesus.”
Acts 4:13 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/act.4.13.NIRV
“Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient.
We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures.
Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other.
But— When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.
He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.
He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Because of his grace he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.”
Titus 3:3-7 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/tit.3.3-7.NLT
“I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you.
Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God.
No, God brings it all to you.
The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.”
Romans 12:3 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/rom.12.3.MSG
“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?
You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price.
So you must honor God with your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.6.20.NLT
“Living within you is the Christ who floods you with the expectation of glory!
This mystery of Christ, embedded within us, becomes a heavenly treasure chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for his people, and God wants everyone to know it!”
Colossians 1:27 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/col.1.27.TPT
“But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.”
Acts of the Apostles 20:24 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/act.20.24.NLT
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