Dave's Diary

Prayer

Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 41:1-2

LORD, You promise to bless those who have regard for the weak;
and to deliver them in times of trouble.
Lord, give me Your heart of care for the weak and vulnerable.
Use me to protect and preserve those in need,
and count me among the blessed in the land. Amen

Reading

Luke 4:14-21

Today’s passage takes us back to the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

Returning from the forty days of wilderness temptation, during which He had come to an absolutely clear understanding of His life’s mission, Jesus went to Nazareth in the power of the Holy Spirit. Here He declared His mission mandate with absolute certainty:

‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

While this declaration of His mandate was not framed as a command to His future disciples, it is highly instructive for us. To be a Christian is to model our lives on our Lord and Master, Jesus. It is to live our lives in imitation of His life, in the power of the Holy Spirit. In the words of various Scriptures, to be a Christian disciple is to “imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1), to “follow His example” (John 15:13), to “love as He has loved” (John 13:35), to “take His yoke upon us” (Matthew 11:29), to “become conformed to His image” (Romans 8:29) or even to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14).

So, with that in mind, I believe we can take Jesus’ mandate as our own mandate. And we can understand that we are also anointed by the Holy Spirit to do everything we can (in His power) to bring good news and hope to the poor, minister freedom to those held in bondage of any kind, help the spiritually blind to understand the things of God, pray for the healing of those in physical bondage and blindness, and work to set oppressed people free.

That sure sounds like an eneormous, even overwhelming proposition. But If I were to break that right down into a single command, very, very simply and generally put – it would be this:

Do everything you can, in the Spirit’s power, and in the Name of Jesus, to make other people’s lives better, freer and fuller!!

Surely we can’t go wrong in our discipleship if we decided to live by that mandate?

Contemplation

Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn this declaration over and over in your mind. Keep it in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ:

• I will do everything I can, in the Spirit’s power, and in the Name of Jesus, to make other people’s lives better, freer and fuller today.

Lord, empower me to make others’ lives better, freer and fuller. Amen