Today’s chapter is Luke 18

Tom writes:

There is only room for one big man in the kingdom, and that spot is already taken. Jesus seems to be particularly rigid about this. I’m feeling a little uneasy about all the people I’ve flattered or assured of their importance to God. On one level that was probably right; to utter the love of the Father to his trembling children. He does, after all, care astonishingly about every single person. But on another level, if we always make the kingdom about us it can start to make us think that God not only wants us but needs us. That God not only needs us but is lucky to have us. And then it isn’t long before we start saying to ourselves that if God keeps on overlooking our demands he will lose out on us all together; like a snotty-nosed servant we will pack up our stuff and head off to another master who we think will be more grateful. I fear that too many people I have seen walk away from Jesus have done so because they felt that they had ‘tried him out’ and he ‘hadn’t delivered the goods’. I wonder how different their stories would have been if, rather than deciding to ‘try God out’ they had actually let God be the boss and they had tried to serve his plans. I wonder how different their stories would have been if they had daily prayed “Jesus, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me; a sinner. I’m just a child. I’m just here to learn.”

It is this latter degrading level of humility that Jesus is advocating in this chapter. He, in his love, wants us to realise that we are just babies. We are babies, fortunate to be growing up in the greatest house in all the kingdom. Jesus showed people that God sees stuff we have no clue about. God is working on things we are utterly blind to and it is really quite silly when we want to tell him what to do. God is Only Wise. When it comes to what is best for the world God scores 100% and most of us might get one question right… if we are lucky and the marking is generous. Our perspectives on ourselves are so small and our track records are so poor that the greatest expression of God’s love for us is to have his voice take priority over our own. Yes - that is what Jesus is saying to us - that the Kingdom only works when we let Jesus be King and that means we, in turn, choose simply to obey. Jesus is keen that we - all of us - see ourselves as spare change in the pocket of God trusting his love and his wisdom to spend us wherever he likes.

Question for reflection

If you gave Jesus total control over your life, what might you do differently?

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Luke 18 - Wednesday 24th January