“Everyone is looking for you!” (Mark 1:37)
Most days, the pressure starts before we finish our coffee. Somebody needs an answer. Somebody needs a favor. Somebody needs a little more of our time. These aren’t bad things. But after enough days like that, we stop thinking about where we’re going. We just keep moving because we’re busy.
People will also try to tell us who we are. Some say we are what we get done. Some say we are what we can do for them. Some only remember our mistakes. If we’re not careful, we start to believe whoever is talking the loudest.
Jesus dealt with this too. One night he healed sick people until late. The next morning he got up while it was still dark and went off by himself to pray. His friends came looking for him. They told him the whole town wanted more. But Jesus said it was time to go to the other towns, because preaching there was what he came to do (Mark 1:35-38).
This kept happening. One crowd wanted to make him king, so he slipped away to be alone (John 6:15). His own brothers told him to go show off what he could do, and he told them it wasn’t his time yet (John 7:3-6). Even Peter, one of his closest friends, tried to talk him out of going to the cross (Matthew 16:21-23). Everybody had a plan for Jesus. Every one of those plans would have pulled him off course.
So how did he stay on track? He knew who he was. Before Jesus preached one sermon or healed one person, God called him his beloved Son (Matthew 3:17). He didn’t have to earn that. And he kept going back to pray, so he could hear his Father over all the other voices. He only did what his Father was doing (John 5:19).
It’s the same for us. We are not our to-do list. We are not what other people say about us. We belong to God. He says, “I have called you by name; you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1). When we remember that, it gets easier to see what matters. We can say no without feeling guilty. We can say yes without feeling used. We don’t have to prove anything, because God has already told us who we are.
Whose voice have you been listening to the most? What is one thing you could set down so you can hear God again?
Pastor Drew