March 8

Numbers 10:1-11:23, Mark 14:1-21, Psalm 51:1-19, Proverbs 10:31-32

Pray: Lord, life is a journey. And my prayer is not that You would make my journey easy. Rather Lord, I pray that my journey would honor Your name. Help me not to complain when things don’t go my way. Help me to be thankful deep within and by faith to voice my thankfulness even when I feel anything but thankful.

Read: In Numbers 10 and 11 we read how Israel began its journey across the wilderness. All began well, there was the clear sound of trumpets to tell Israel what to do. And there was order. When it was time to march there was order in the marching. So many things start well. But somewhere into our journey what we think should happen and what is really happening seems very far apart. Discouragement sets in. There is great temptation to complain to your leaders and for your leaders to complain to God. God intervened for Israel. They got the meat they wanted. They got so much meat that they grew sick of it. Remember, getting what we want may not be the best thing for us. Ask God to give you what you need and not what you want.

Edify: Jesus shares with His followers in Mark 14:7, “You will always have the poor among you, and you can help them whenever you want to. But you will not always have me.” A woman had come to Jesus and poured out expensive perfume over His head. She was obeying a prompting in her spirit. Those about her felt she was wasteful and that the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor. But Jesus knew that something far more important than feeding the poor was going on. And Jesus said that this deed would always be remembered throughout history. Sometimes acts of faith and obedience to a prompting from the Holy Spirit just don’t make sense. But never lose sight of the bigger picture. Jesus was telling His followers not to miss the eternal realm while living in the natural realm.

Practice: The Holy Spirit is sometimes called “the hound of heaven.” He will prod you repeatedly sometimes to do something that just seems to make no sense. We shouldn’t be foolish and chase the wind just because a crazy thought pops into our minds and needs to be taken captive. At the same time though, should we have a recurrent thought or prompting we shouldn’t summarily dismiss it. Take that prompting to the throne of grace. Examine it in the light of God’s word. And seek God for confirmation.