Read Luke 9:3
He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt.
Several years ago, I volunteered to join a small team traveling to Africa to teach and interview new pastors as the church there was beginning to grow. Honestly, it was a knee-jerk reaction to say yes when the opportunity presented itself. The week before we were set to leave, I began to get nervous, and I questioned what in the world I had gotten myself into! We had prepared to travel with a fellow pastor who had visited the area for the last 20 years. He knew the language, the customs …in short, he was our expert, and we were dependent on him.
But in that last week of preparation, he received a difficult diagnosis and was unable to travel with us. During our prayer time together as a team, one of our members felt like God was showing us something in today’s verse. It wasn’t that God was calling us not to pack bags or take any money for a 10-day trip to Africa… (can you imagine that?!!!) but that maybe we needed to remember that God would be our provision and that the one we should rely on while we were there was Him. It was a hard truth to swallow.
God actually provided us with another pastor who could travel with us, who had great experience and wisdom for our trip. But at almost every turn we discovered that the things we thought we knew and the plans we made beforehand – well…God had bigger plans…and we truly had to trust him to provide and to make a way.
I think that is what Jesus is getting at in today’s passage. We can easily be distracted by making plans and trying to figure everything out for ourselves…in our own power. But Jesus didn’t want the disciples…and us, to miss what God can do when we have to rely solely on him. He is a perfect provider.
What do you need to let go of or leave behind so that you can focus on what only God can do? You can trust in the power of his provision!
