There is so much great stuff in today’s reading. I want to focus in on an area that always made me wonder because I always found it interesting that Jesus seemed to pick the Sabbath as the day He wanted to push the Pharisee’s buttons. Jesus must have known that healing someone on the Sabbath would annoy them, yet He did it anyway. I think some of the reasons are obvious, like wanting them to focus on what is really important rather than simply following the rules. However, I think one of the main things He wanted to show to them was simply that He is the creator of everything, including the Sabbath. If all they cared about was the Sabbath, then they were missing God’s entire reason for creating us in the first place. How many times do I miss God’s reason for doing something in my life because I simply focus in on the thing He has allowed to happen to me instead of learning to pull myself away from the individual incident and learn to see the big picture and His plan for it all.
2012 Day 21 – Luke 6
21 Saturday Jan 2012
Posted in Daily Reading
Daily Devotion 
I really struggle with today’s reading. It’s very easy for me to love people that are easy for me to love. People that love me back. People that are like me. People with the same interests and socioeconomic background. People that are normal and not too weird. But it seems like God constantly puts people that stretch me in my life to tell me that I need to work on loving others, just as He loved me. It doesn’t matter how many times I read passages like this, I always come up short. I wonder why I don’t take this more seriously? Jesus clearly spent a good part of His life teaching this as He elaborates on it in today’s reading. I’m going to pray that God continues to work on me in this area.
I totally agree Brian! I think I need to make this a part of my prayer life as well. I like being comfortable; maybe its time I get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
I like your last question a lot, and it’s something that’s been on my mind. It’s easy to get bogged down with concern about how I think something should or shouldn’t go, instead of just embracing it as part of God’s plan.
I just was reading through “Beautiful Outlaw” by John Eldridge this morning and was really inspired to be a truer version of me. He encouraged me to put off my fear of man and my desperate need to be accepted, and take on the freedom of being truly me, the me that Jesus created me to be. I’ll be honest, the very thought terrifies me! I’ve been down this road before, and it sucks. People don’t understand me. People can’t handle me. People completely misread me. All of that hurts. So over the years, I’ve learned to adapt myself to fit into a more “socially acceptable Cheryl,” one that is easier to like and rarely gets hurt by people. But apparently God is really pushing the issue- I read the same thing in Luke 6 today! Verse 26 says, “There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests- look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors. Your task is to be true, not popular.” God, give me strength. This really does terrify me.