Let the Dead Bury the Dead

But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”  Matthew 8:22

(Friday

When Jesus calls some people dead, who is He talking about? The easy road is to think that He is referring to someone else, not us. But if we care to be those who end up as His chosen ones, we cannot pass the buck. The only safe disposition for us is to open ourselves to Him and gleam our instructions as He provides.

Without a personal, daily walk with Jesus, we are like every other nation. We act as if we are alive, but in God´s eyes, we are as good as dead. We are on a one-way trip, and where we are headed is nowhere closer to the Lord. But our story does not have to end like that. Christ´s words are for us. We can let the dead bury the dead.

Right now, we can choose what is important for us. If we accept Jesus´ words, they can be ours. The call to follow Him will be ours. From there, only God´s Spirit can set limitations or possibilities for us. With our eyes on Him and our hearts close to His, we could walk on water or through flames. Pray that we choose what the Lord would have for us!

Dear Jesus, we look up to You from this dead-end road we are on.  In our natural ways, we have been living as if we were dead already.  Yet when our eyes turn to You, our hearts spark to life.  Looking past this low and dark way of life we can see Your shining kingdom above.  There is life with You there.  Those who stop to gaze on high, place our hope in You. Send us Your Spirit to lift our attention from our world to Yours. And help us to follow closer as You walk us through our day. Amen

Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV / And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV / The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

John 6:44 ESV / No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

John 12:32 ESV / And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

John 1:12 ESV / But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,