March 23, 2024

It’s funny how egocentric we tend to be about God. We think and pray in a manner that makes it seem as if I or We are the only people on God’s mind or on God’s agenda. We sometimes forget that God has a world filled with people that He loves and in whose lives He desires to work.
That’s why I think the disciples were a bit surprised when Jesus told them that there were other towns He needed to visit and other people He needed to preach to. Jesus had been doing miracles in THEIR community. He had been healing people in THEIR families. Jesus had been captivating and changing people in THEIR synagogue where He preached. They were so in touch with all of Jesus’ work among them, it never dawned on them that there were other places that Jesus desired to work as well.
I sometimes get blind like that, too. Do you? I pray diligently for God to work in my church and LOOK for Him working there. I pray for my friends and my family, and I am actively seeking His Presence for them. But I forget that God is passionately at work in other places as well! God is at work at the Y where I work out and serve on the board. He’s as passionate about those other board members and Y members as He is about my church and my family. God is at work at the Walmart where I shop. Many of those people I’m shopping beside or who are working at the store need Jesus in desperate ways, too. Those people I wave to while I walk or pump gas at the pump next to me—God cares about them and is working in their lives.
My point is this: don’t be so narrow-focused. The same God who is working and healing in your family and church has much work to do in the bigger world all around you. Everywhere you go today, God has lives He wants to touch and people He wants to heal. Someone may need His word of encouragement from you. Someone may need His comfort that He wants to express through you. Someone may need you to hear their heart and say a prayer over them. Just like the disciples, God may be inviting you along to other places, other people, and other work that He is doing. It’s not always about you. That’s God’s Word for you today.