Daily Reflection – 1/22/19
Sacred Scripture
One sabbath Jesus was walking through the grain fields. As his disciples walked along with him, they began to pick the heads of grain and crush them in their hands. Then the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look! they are doing what is forbidden on the sabbath!”. And He said to them, “Have you never read what David did in his time of need, when he and his men were very hungry? He went into the house of God when Abiathar was High Priest and ate the bread of offering, which only the priests are allowed to eat, and he also gave some to the men who were with him.”. Then Jesus said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. So the Son of Man is master even of the sabbath. (Mark 2: 23-28)
Reflection
There are numerous applications that can be taken with this text. Beginning with just one . . . our attitude and perspective on Sunday worship. Is it a blessing or an obligation?
The devil works very hard to take the joy of worship and make it a burden. He wants us to be overworked and overburdened during the week so that when it comes time to choose between “me time” and time with my Savior it will be hard to choose. In my life in ministry, I have heard every excuse invented. The most popular, of course, is :“ I don’t need to go to Church to worship God, I can do that in the beauty of nature.”
The evil one wants us to find reasons why time for church time is just too difficult. He wants to drive a wedge between us and God’s teachers simply because the teacher doesn’t always do things or say things in the way that we want him too. The devil wants us to make worship all about me and what I want. The more the devil wins the more we miss out on the true joy of worshiping our God, seeing what Jesus has done for us and having our hearts and our minds renewed with hope and comfort.
Worship does have a very personal component. Worship shows us the special relationship we have with our God. That relationship starts with the love that God has for us and ends with the blessings that come through Jesus. We have reason for joy, not because we are so good, but because we are forgiven freely through Jesus. We have reason for joy because we do not live in fear of death, but we live anticipating the eternal joy of heaven which Christ won for us. These are reasons to be joyful and to worship our loving God. True worship always centers on what God has done for us through Jesus. As we think on that, the Holy Spirit builds us up in faith and the response of praise and thanks naturally flows from us. May we always continue to worship in a way that brings him the praise, honor and thanks he deserves.
Prayer of The Day
Lord Jesus Christ, your life and death was for me. Because of your gift, I can be set free from sin. Because of your gift, I am given the opportunity to know eternal life. Keep that in the forefront of my eyes so that my worship time with you is focused on giving thanks for all that you do in my life.
Daily Note
Christ wants from the Pharisees nothing less than an act of faith in his own divine person. His heart longs to save them. Christ yearns to bring to salvation everyone he encounters, including his enemies. Does my own zeal for souls bring me to reflect something of Christ’s courage and love when I am faced with opposition? Do I desire and seek what is good for everyone regardless of their attitude towards me?
