Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. Matthew 10:16 NABRE
True worship of God requires more than attending liturgical rituals. True adoration of God is backed up by righteous living; following God’s commandments, doing good works, giving alms, refraining from evil and avoiding injustice. We must be in the world, sharing the message of Jesus and caring for our brothers and sisters. This is important for us, as we require an experience of God to know God. It is fine to go and pray and say beautiful things to God. But in order to have a true experience of God we must take what we can from prayer and apply it in the world. Jesus is teaching this lesson to His disciples. He tells them they will be sent out and share what they have been taught to know about God and Himself. This is part of their training. He tells them there will be success but He also lets them know there will be failure, great failure in fact, they could be flogged, arrested and even exiled from their own family. Jesus knows that He has been rejected and they will be rejected in His name. But, failure is part of the experience. We need to fail when trying to do the work of God because it informs us that we need to be reliant on God. The message is not dependent on them or us but on God.
Also they (we) need the failures to help keep level headed. Success goes to the head, those who succeed can think it is them who are to be glorified, rather than God. All failure in the name of Jesus will lead to growth, holiness and deepening of the Spirit. It is not until we have failed that we truly have anything to say to others. While we admire others success, we can only learn from them if they share their failure.
Do you experience failure for Christ? Do you use failure for spiritual growth?
It is fine to go and pray and say beautiful things to God. But in order to have a true experience of God we must take what we can from prayer and apply it in the world. Click To Tweet#bible #godisgreat #jesus #christianity #dailybibleverse @youversion #BeAnEncourager #fail #sent #Matthew #everybodyalways #god #jesuschrist #jesussaves #godisgood #dailydevotion #biblestudy #scripture #bibleverse #verseoftheday #pray #prayer #goodnews #loveeachother #godisgreat #thisVineyard #youversion #everythingalways