Beautiful Bali

All my friends were so jealous that I would be going somewhere so wonderful, and I didn’t hold back on rubbing it in!

Matthew 10:1-42

Reference: v.39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. (TNIV Bible)

Explore: A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to go to Bali, Indonesia for a holiday. After my exhausting year I was dreaming about the sun, sand and relaxation I would have while in the warm climate of Bali.

All my friends were so jealous that I would be going somewhere so wonderful, and I didn’t hold back on rubbing it in! The excitement continued to build as I packed shorts, t-shirts and bathers into my luggage and headed out on my luxurious vacation.

Having travelled all throughout the day I was happy to get to our hotel, eat a meal and fall into bed, so I was fully refreshed for my first full day of holidays. I woke the next morning to what sounded like torrential rain. I must have been dreaming it or maybe it was just a fan making a similar sound.

Much to my dismay, I looked out my window to see streams of water falling from the sky. This barely stopped for 48 hours!!

While we still had a good time, and experienced a great deal of this gorgeous part of our world, we did get absolutely saturated on more than one occasion and I vowed never to holiday in a tropical area during their rainy season ever again!

Application: Our expectations can often be very different to our reality.

When people hear about Jesus in church there is this perception that when they follow Him everything will then be perfect in their lives. They won’t ever experience debt, doubt or depression ever again.

It is true that our lives will change when we dedicate them to Christ, however, it certainly doesn’t mean that there will be no problems. Just reading through Matthew 10 and hearing about what Jesus’ disciples would encounter, reminded me that following Jesus isn’t a walk in the park.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s the best decision I have ever made, but I like to be realistic too. Jesus never said it would all be roses after we follow Him. He will give us purpose, grace and unconditional love and our lives will be better with Him, but we need to acknowledge that if we are really to commit our lives to Christ then we need to sacrifice our old selves and give fully to His cause.

Prayer: Lord, at times, we have the wrong idea of what it really means to follow you. As we read through the gospel may we understand what Jesus went through and realize that we are called to do the same. Amen.

What part of Matthew 10 have you experienced as part of living out your faith?

disciple, expectations, faith, Matthew