April 7, 2026:

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Jesus called His twelve disciples to Him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.”

(Matthew 10.1)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

When Jesus prayed in the Upper Room following the Seder feast celebration, He gave thanks to God for giving Him those people around the table and in the room to be His disciples. It was a prayer of recognizing the trust God put in Him (Jesus) to shepherd that flock which would actually be a group of 120 (according to Luke in the Book of Acts.) Jesus was moved by His Heavenly Father’s trust in Him not only to be the man He was in whose image those around Him were made but to be the spiritual guide and Savior. It was a serious responsibility. Completing and fulfilling that duty would set in motion the completion of God’s full and original intention for the people of God for His people everywhere. (I will set aside the challenging question of “If God knew it was going to be this way, then why didn’t He just make it happen from the start?” Suffice it to say “Who can know the full will of God when our ways are not His ways and our thoughts are not His thoughts? How presumptuous that we know better than God when we don’t even know ourselves.) And Jesus did know them all better than they knew themselves from doubting Thomas to brash Peter, from boisterous James and John to curious Philip and Nathanael, from Matthew the redeemed from looking like a traitor to Israel to Judas of Kerioth who in the end was called a traitor of Christ. Jesus knew it all and knew it was a path He dared not change. To change the path was to go against God’s will. He thanked God for them and for His Father’s trust in Him to do the right thing for everyone.

Matthew doesn’t fill in the blanks for where all the disciples came from. He does impart the more important truth of where they were to go to. They go with Jesus’ spiritual blessing to do good works for those who had come to believe God didn’t care enough. God cared enough to send the very best. Uniquely that included the disciples. Similarly, that includes us. We are His spiritual earthly body carrying out His will and abiding with His Spirit which He gives to all who will believe, take up their cross and follow His footsteps through the world and into eternity…never alone. We must do a better job of staying step with Him. Matthew shows us that it is far less important where we came from and so important to know where we are going, what we are to do and why.

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.