CAUSE

Matthew 19:13,14—Then little children were brought to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

How could Jesus’ disciples stand in the way of parents bringing their children to Him? The disciples were not so interested in Jesus as they were in their idea of what He should be. They were devoted to a cause. Their cause was to see Jesus be the Messiah who would sit as rescuer and ruler of Israel. Their work was to ensure that He succeed. Children therefore represented an interruption to their busy King. Little tykes were hardly the worthy audience of a Teacher in demand and were most certainly a distraction to the disciples’ quest to further Jesus’ ministry.

We criticize the disciples for being so insensitive. And yet we do the same thing they did. We block people from seeing Jesus because we are more devoted to our own causes than we are to Him. Whenever a person is consumed with a holy task but does not exhibit kindness or an appropriate love for those in close proximity, one can rightly conclude that this person is more devoted to his or her work than to Jesus. God is not so interested in what we do for Him after all He is omnipotent! He can easily accomplish His will. What He seeks is our devotion to Him. The sooner we understand this, the more relaxed and encouraged we will become about the purpose and meaning of life! When our eyes are on Jesus we see people as He sees them . . . something to think about in reveration.

Inspiration

The one, great, dominant recognition is that my personal self belongs to Jesus Christ. The counterfeit is giving ourselves as devotees to a cause. Thousands of people are losing their lives for the sake of a cause; this is perilously wrong because it is so nearly right. Anything that rouses us to act on the line of principles instead of a relationship to a person fosters our natural independence and becomes a barrier to yielding to Jesus Christ. Have we recognized that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, or are we jabbering busybodies so taken up with Christian work that we have no time for the Christ whose work it is; not time for Him in the morning, no time for Him at night, because we are so keen on doing the things that are called by His name? What we have to watch today is the competition of causes against devotion to Jesus Christ. One life, yielded to God at all costs, is worth thousands only touched by God.—Oswald Chambers in The Servant as His Lord