Jesus Redirects Us to God [Luke 10]


20"Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven."

When Jesus sent out the 70 disciples to minister in the villages, they were able to do miracles in Jesus' name. Not surprisingly, they came back to Him rejoicing in what they did. Their focus was on themselves and their newly bestowed abilities. It is hard for me to understand why Jesus rebuked them because I would have come back rejoicing if I could do miracles in front of God and everybody. Isn't it good to do good stuff for Jesus? And shouldn't I be rejoicing when I accomplish great things for Him. The answer to that is no, if it takes my eyes off of God. The disciples needed to be redirected to God and their salvation and not on selves and their accomplishments.

I have been watching the Dog Whisperer on TV lately. It is an amazing show in which Cesar, the Dog Whisperer, shows the owners of difficult dogs to redirect the dogs to focus on the owner. When the dog learns to keep paying attention to the owner and the owner learns how to be a leader for the dog, the dog calms down and the aberrant behaviors in the dogs disappears. The point is focus, when the dog is redirected in its focus and learns to follow the leader's commands, all is well and even vicious behaviors are under control.

Jesus is like a people whisperer. He is constantly trying to redirect us to Him and the gospel message and to the Loving Father who sent Him. When we don't focus on Him as our leader, there is chaos and harmful stuff going on. But when we stop looking at what we have done and redirect to Him and the fact that He saved us once for all from an eternity of hell, there is peace.

May you let Him keep on redirecting you back to Him and His salvation and may you have peace!


Beth Warlick, 3/4/2009