Evotional.com - Mark Batterson

I just finished Mark's gospel. Here are a few reflections.

I think we underestimate how much faith it takes to obey God in the little things. In fact, I think it's tougher to trust God for the little things than the big things! Before the triumphal entry, Jesus told the disciples to go get a colt that didn't belong to him. There is another word for that in conventional circumstances: theft. I'm sure the disciples felt a little self-conscious as they untied it. Have you ever walked out of the store and set off the sensor? You feel guilty even if you didn't take anything! I think that's how the disciples felt. Jesus told them to untie a donkey that would be tied at a doorway. "As they untied it, some people standing there asked, 'What are you doing, untying that colt'?"

Let me put it in modern context. That'd be like hoping into a car you don't own and taking off with it. This "small act of faith" by the disciples is underestimated. But I'm impressed with their obedience. I think Jesus was always giving them "little tests of faith" to see if they'd pass or fail. The disciples pass this one.

I think what I'm trying to say is this: I want to obey God in the little things. It took courage for the disciples to do what they did. I want to obey God in little ways. At the end of the day, I think it's obedience to the "still small voice" or promptings of the Spirit that get us where God wants us to go!

One of the things the Lord has been teaching me is that matter must submit to spirit. We get it backwards. We think that what we can see and touch is more real than that which is invisible or intangible. We've got it backwards. Materialists think matter is more real than spirit. Spiritual people know that spirit is more real than matter. Everything originates from Spirit. There's an old saying: mind over matter. I think an even more profound truth is: spirit over matter. I think that is what happens in Mark 11:20. Jesus cursed a fig tree and it withered overnight. Matter submitted to spiritual authority! By the way, isn't that what Jesus meant when he said you could tell a mountain to jump into the sea?

I love the story of the woman who anointed Jesus with the Alabaster Jar of Perfume. I think there are two lessons I take away. Jesus didn't have the time of day for the "second-guessers." I think some people act like self-appointed second-guessers. This woman performed a wonderful act of service, but there is always someone who can find something wrong with something right. In a very self-righteous way they said, "Why this waste of perfume?" I think Jesus was frustrated by people who could always identify problems but never offer solutions. Do you know anyone like that? I think the rebuke to "second-guessers" is found in verse 8: "She did what she could." I love that. That is what God is looking for! Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshipping what's right about God. Don't let what you can't do keep you from doing what you can! I'll take a "can-do" person over a second-guesser any day of the week! Let's quit second-guessing and start doing!