LifeLink Devotional for Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Luke 4:18-19  “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

As we move on from the attributes of Jesus we come to the letter M in our acrostic, which is the word MISSION. Everything we do in word or deed is to be done in connection to the mission of Jesus Christ to save souls. I wonder how our lives would change if we took some quality time to evaluate how much time is spent on the mission of Jesus compared to being spent on our own pursuits? I suspect they might change drastically.

First, a couple of ground rules for such evaluation.

1. No guilt and shame is allowed. You may not have thought about these things before, and Satan would love to wrap you up in a blanket of regret. But spiritual change is about forgetting the past and pressing on towards the future.  
2. It is valid that we all need relaxation and recreation, but our tendency is to compartmentalize mission and not see how “fun times” connect to it. Even Jesus got away from everyone and relaxed. However, when He relaxed, He did so with the sole purpose of being physically refreshed for the accomplishment of His Father’s mission. Even while He was relaxing, He prayed, prioritized, planned, and prepared for God’s purpose in His life.

For example, on any given weekend or day off from work, how much time do we intentionally spend thinking about how the activities we choose will refresh us and provide us with increased opportunities to share the Good News of Jesus with someone at work when we return? In case you’re wondering, I have spent many days off not thinking about that. But on the days I do, the next day is dramatically different.  I wake up with all three engines running at peak performance. My physical engine is strong. My emotional engine is secure. My spiritual engine is running at top speed in anticipation of being used by God to touch someone’s life with His love. All because while I relaxed, I thought about what God wanted to do with my life after I was refreshed. The mistake many of us make is to use relaxation and recreation as an escape from the past, rather than a preparation for the future.

Spend some time today seriously contemplating that last statement. When you go camping, or fishing, or golfing, biking, or thrift-saleing, or travelling, or on any day off activity you prefer, are you preparing for the future or are you trying to escape from the stress of the past? When we keep our hearts connected to the mission of Jesus, everything we do is a preparation to be used by the Holy Spirit to accomplish His mission.

Pastor John