Luke 22:35: He said to them, “When I sent you out without a purse, bag, or sandals, did you lack anything?”
If you were to make a list of all the things you lack in life, how long would that list be? More money. A better job. More cash in your kid’s college savings account. An addition to your house. An even larger big screen TV. For men, more hair on your head. And less stomach around your waist.
There are a lot of things we lack in life, or at least, a lot of things that we would really like.
But the presumptive answer to Jesus’ question here is that the disciple didn’t lack anything! They had everything they needed to witness to Jesus when he sent them out. They didn’t have an extra briefcase, suitcase, or wing-tip shoes. But they lacked nothing.
One author I’ve been reading has said that one of the greatest “sins” we have is to expect too little of ourselves because we expect too little from God. We often don’t ask God for what we think we need because we don’t trust that God is really able to answer our prayers. Can God really heal, change minds, and touch hearts? Can God really do what God has promised to do, and can we trust God to deliver on those promises? Will Jesus send us out, too, lacking nothing?
Let me suggest an exercise for you that I think would be helpful.
Start each morning thinking and saying to yourself, “I am a child of God who belongs to God, believes in God, and will become the person God created me to be.” Begin each morning with those words while you were brushing your teeth, saying: “I am a child of God who belongs to God, believes in God, and will become the person God created me to be.” Before you go to work or school and begin to relate to a whole variety of people in a variety of circumstances, just said to yourself: “I am a child of God who belongs to God, believes in God, and will become the person God created me to be.” When you’re feeling frustration with your kids, or your in-laws, or your boss, or even with your spouse; before you react in a way you might regret, just say to yourself, “I am a child of God who belongs to God, believes in God, and will become the person God created me to be.” If you do that on a regular basis, you’ll begin to re-orientate your brain and even begin to rewire it to start thinking and acting and reacting from that perspective.
“I am a child of God who belongs to God, believes in God, and will become the person God created me to be.” You are a child of God. You are a child of the most high. God knit you together in your mother’s womb and you are marvelously made (Psalm 139). The apostle Paul writes in Ephesians, ““Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever”
Since you are a child of the most high God, God is able to do exceedingly abundantly in you above and beyond all you can imagine. Perhaps that means that means that you don’t sell yourself short, you don’t compromise your values, you remember that you will never regret it if you take the high road in all that you do because you know that you’ve regretted it when you’ve taken the low road. Perhaps it means that you tell the truth because you know that when you don’t, you’ll always be found out, and the consequences will be much worse than telling the truth in the first place. You are a child of the most high God.
When Jesus sends us out, do we lack anything? No. No, with Jesus we lack nothing. Thanks be to God!
Questions to Ponder:
- · Do you feel like a child of God who belongs to God, believes in God, and will become the person God created you to be? Why or why not?
- · What difference would it make in your life to say that sentence at least 5 times every day this week? Are you willing to do it?
Prayer for Today: Gracious God, who gives us exceedingly abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine, we lack nothing on this journey through life. Gracious Provider, we praise you for green pastures and quiet waters. We pray that you would redeem us and restore us and always draw us closer to you. In Jesus' name. Amen.
This is a great song; a live version of a classic song. Let the words and emotions flow over you.
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