0
0
When I was in elementary school there was this game of sort, when you were walking you would try to avoid cracks on the ground. Why? Because if you stepped on a crack, you would break your mother’s back. How do kids come up with things like this, it’s troubling! When your eyes are down trying to avoid cracks on the ground, so you do not break your mother’s back you are not looking up to praise God or find opportunities to help and serve.
The Pharisees were so stuck following the rules, avoiding the cracks that they lost sight of the big picture and they had many encounters with Jesus around this issue. Including the one written about in Matthew 12:11-12, Mark 3:1, and Luke 6:6-11 where Jesus entered a place of worship on the Sabbath and noticed a man with a shriveled hand, he was challenged by the Pharisees to the legality of healing on the Sabbath.
11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Matthew 12:11-12 NIV
I think I’m particularly fond of this verse and really any verse that involves sheep because we raise them. A shout out to all my sheep people, haha I’m not that cool. This message is so much bigger, bigger than the Sabbath it is a reminder to not get stuck looking for the cracks and miss the opportunities placed in your way to help lift others and to serve God.
The Holy Spirit as my guide search me, where are places in my life where I confine myself with rules over people. Help me to lift my eyes and see the needs of others. Do not allow me to confine myself to a meager existence of crack avoidance let me walk boldly with purpose as designed by my creator, my loving Father in Heaven. In the name of Jesus, I pray these things. -Amen
May the words that flow from me Lord be filled with Your message and when I am obedient may they be backed by the Holy Spirit. When I serve righteously let none of the words, I utter in praise of You fall to the ground. Help me to craft every word, may they pierce hearts and refresh weary souls. This gift is Yours; God I simply aim to use it for your glory.
–Love Cortney