Prayer Pointers: For perseverance in the Way of Jesus Christ
To not lose heart
To not be afraid of waste
Today’s text: John 1:19-28
BE CAREFUL ABOUT OUR TENDENCY as Americans to be pragmatic, “whatever works” people. John out in the wilderness is, in an honest sense of the word, a profligate. The son of Zechariah is as far from the Temple and the center of things as he can be: out in the middle of nowhere, doing something that even he can only partially explain, pushing away from himself any credit or glory. “This is not about me! I am only the voice! There is another on the way, and I must fade, my efforts be forgotten.”
Of course, it is not true that John’s efforts are forgotten, but how many times did he fall asleep in the desert night thinking “this is not working; tomorrow I’m going back to Jerusalem and try to pick up the pieces there, try to make something of myself”? Yet the work was before him, the calling of God upon him, and to the end he cried out "make straight the way of the Lord."
A poem I’ve kept on a scrap of paper puts it well:
If you ever see a great work of God,
Something joyous, alive and real,
Something of Christ,
Something that is Christ,
Something enduring,
Then you may be certain of one thing:
One day, some lonely saint
Silent, deserted
Went to the cross
Suffered, died and fell into the earth
And for what did that one die?
For that lovely harvest
That work of God
Which you now see
And declare to be so beautiful.
There must be another day
Another body of believers
Another silence when someone else must fall into the earth…
That someone may need to be you.
Remember: nothing done in the name of Jesus Christ is ever wasted.
May your day be grace-filled ~ Pr. Dave Brooks