Devotional Text: Luke 9:1-6 (ESV)

And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. And he said to the, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money, and do not have two tunics. And whatever house you enter, stay there and from there depart. And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.”And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

Dear Friends

Power, fame and fortune is something everyone is seeking and for this they have to give something up. Normally it is something easy that they giving up because they are not the ones who are suffering but the ones who are on the receiving side. Children and wives not seeing their husbands because they work long hours justifying it by saying that they have to work so hard in order to provide for their living. They thus become missionaries of wealth instead of missionaries for those who really need them.

For this reason Jesus sends the twelve apostles out with nothing but themselves, since it is in this way that they can live devoted lives to the mission up on which their teacher is sending them. Nothing can hold them back therefore they need not to worry about anything except the purpose of this mission.  As a missionary for your family, you should know that they do not need your wealth or fame and the power that comes along with it, rather they need a person who loves them and cherish them every single day of their lives. They need a father next to their first ball game or a daughter at her first ballet concert.  

Can you see that in reality all that is expected of you is your time, which is very little since we all live in the space of time, all we need to do is asking God to help us to take the right equipment for the journey ahead and then go on that journey. Living the gospel as fathers shows our children that they are beautiful and precious to us.

Missionaries are sent with very little and the practical reason  for that is that they can be mobile and able to move quickly from one place to another. Whatever they receive along the way they realise that it is God’s grace that empowers them, since it is God who works through them, knowing this people respond them in two ways, the first being that they open their home for them, feeling welcomed and from there moving out to other areas. This they do because they radiate God’s love to them wanting them to stay in order for them to learn more. The second however is the group where people pushes you away, they despise you and yes even hate you, those being people who not just only exposes the cracks but who is working hard towards widening it. As Christians whether we like it or not we will always be on a mission, whether at home among family and friends or at work between colleagues you will always be watched and for that reason one should focused on where it all begins namely at how we treat those who we claim to love.

If your position in which you may find yourself in today is withholding you from what really matters to you, then talk to those who matters, let them minister into your heart for what they say to you might bring a realization about THAT YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE SO HARD ON YOURSELF, since for them by making them your biggest mission is all they really want. You may lose your job after giving so many hours, meaning that them might shake the dust of their feet when it comes to you, so don’t shake the dust from your  feet to those will remain with you forever, namely those people you call family.

Amen