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Luke:9:27-36

Keep struggling

There is so much about my life that is a struggle. I struggle to get up in the morning in a way that doesn’t remind my family of a grizzly bear with a headache. Then there is struggling to love my wife in a Christ-like way, raise my kids to love Jesus, work to glorify God and prevent what I enjoy from taking over my life.

It is a comfort to me to find Jesus struggling. The disciples’ faith is lacking, they don’t understand what he is telling them despite him using short simple sentences. Then they have a fight over who is going to be the greatest disciple. It is such a mess that even Jesus struggled; “O faithless and twisted generation, how long shall I have to bear with you?” Lk 9:41.

Christ heals, explains, demonstrates and seeks to expand the disciples despite their slowness to understand. I think about the contrast it must have been coming down the mountain after speaking to Moses and Elijah to be met with such a broken, fallen bunch of desperate people. Christ continues to move towards the lost, the confused, the prideful and the elite to teach them faithfulness, to make them wise, to humble them and to encourage ministry for all who believe not just the official disciples.

This means that I can ask Christ to forgive me my faithlessness, dumbness, pride and elitism, confident that Christ will forgive me and help me to grow. There is more. Amazingly Christ wants me to help other people grow in faith, wisdom, humility and encouragement. This means I need to keep struggling. the Rev      

Luke 9:37-50 Who is Jesus? The Suffering Servant Part 3

Exercises

• Discuss in what way Christ (in v37-42) is encouraging and how he can encourage you to believe in himself despite how big or complex your problems may seem.

• Discuss in what way Christ (in v43-45) is encouraging and how he can widen your understanding of God, the world and yourself.

• Discuss in what way Christ (in v46-48) is encouraging and how he can make you great in his Kingdom.

• Discuss in what way Christ (in v49-50) is encouraging and how he can make you more encouraging.

Prayer: Lord Jesus I praise you for willingness to become the suffering servant by suffering many things, by being rejected and by being brutally killed. Make me open to learning to be faithful, wise, humble and encouraging by also being willing to suffer so that I can be a blessing to my family, friends, people at church, work and community. Amen