Monday Devotional: June 27, 2022

Scripture: Luke 10:1-11

There is joy in being directed by God. Yet this joy lives in the midst of uncertainty, struggle, and challenge. Jesus directs the disciples into what will most assuredly be troublesome places. They will face temptations of anxiety over everything — from how they will survive to who will receive them and help them. Even as they are tempted to worry in the ways that we worry, they carry the authority and power of God with them. Fear and anxiety on the one hand, divine authority and power on the other hand — which will shape their expectations on their journey? We face the same question daily. God wishes to direct our journey just like the original disciples filling us with a tangible joy that witnesses the reign of God through Jesus in our lives. And, like those early disciples, we must walk in the faith of Jesus, following his steps. Our journey is now his journey, and his journey is our journey.

The disciples of Jesus live in Jesus; from that place, they face the complicated days knowing that Emmanuel is more than just a name. It is a way of life and living: God is with us. This is why Jesus speaks with such confidence in what his disciples can do as they journey. This is not pride in their abilities but trust in the God who will go with them. We may face each day with extraordinary confidence not in our own abilities but in the commitment of God in Christ Jesus to our life. Today’s portion of your life journey then becomes quite special, because today brings another chance to bear witness in the simple gestures of life — eating, talking, helping — to a God who has come close, joining flesh to flesh in the Son, and who says to us, “I am with you.”

By Willie James Jennings, Upper Room Disciplines 2013, p. 226.