You Are Not the Boss of...Jesus!

So I’m reading my chapter this morning and I get to Luke 9:11, 12 and get indignant. Let’s see if you can figure out why. It says,

‘…the multitudes…followed [Jesus]; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing. When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.”

After I read that I was indignant. I was like, ‘Ain’t this some mess? Here the Lord is, done taught and healed all those people for hours and the disciples have the nerve to say, ‘Send them away, that they may go…get provisions.’ That just chapped my hide especially when I saw how disrespectful they were to the Lord. They were telling the Lord what He needed to do which let me know they had gotten too common with the man of God. How many of you can attest to that? How many times have you dapped your Pastor up or spoke too casually to or about the man of God? Okay, well that’s not what I was indignant about today.

But, let’s look at that verse again. The disciples said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.” What they were really saying is, ‘Don’t expect for us to feed all these people because we’re way out here in the boon docks and in case You didn’t notice, there aren’t any Walmart’s out here!’ But You know what the Lord did? ‘He said to them, “You give them something to eat.” Which meant, ‘That’s YOUR job! You’re responsible for feeding the conference attendees.’ While they were busy trying to tell the Lord what He needed to do, He reminded them of their job description. While they were trying to talk the Lord into doing their job, He reminded them of theirs. Luke 9:14-17 says, ‘Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty”…then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and…gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude.’ He made them organize the thousands of attendees and personally cater to the crowd. Then after the conference was over, He made them clean the facility and gather ‘the baskets of the leftover fragments.’ But isn’t that just like us?

Do Your Job

Sometimes we expect Jesus to do everything. We even get to the point where we try to tell Him what to do and then go so far as to tell Him to do our job for us. Even after He’s healed us, taught us, and told us what to do so that we can. After I saw that about the disciples, I had to check myself and ask where I was expecting God to do my job? What was I telling Jesus to do that He’d already told me to? Almost immediately He showed me and right then and there, I put my indignation up, repented for judging the disciples and asked for forgiveness for having not gotten the job done. My advice to you, do the same. What haven’t you done that you’re expecting others, or even God, to do? Check you first before looking, criticizing and instructing everybody else. Because more times than not, there’s something you’re not doing too.

Pray this with me: Heavenly Father, please forgive me for trying to tell You how to save, protect, and provide for me. Please forgive me for having not done what You told me to do and please forgive me when I was prideful and turned around and told You to do it for me. I repent and ask that You’d remind me of my responsibilities and I thank You for the grace to get it done quickly and quietly. In Jesus’ name.

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