Prayer To Be Beware of the Little Things That Destroy Our Relationship With God

 Today we want to look at a little story of Jesus and his disciples.  They are in a boat just after Jesus has once again fed thousands of people with just a few loaves. For some reason, Jesus disciples all of a sudden realized that they were headed towards a more remote location and they had not brought enough food along with them and worry started to set in. 

As He always does, Jesus notices what is going on and even knows what’s going on in their thinking.  Here’s the story.

Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?

And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.”  “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.”  And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”  Mark 8:14-21

Yeast was a little metaphor that was used to represent sin and wrong in Jesus’ time.  Jesus is warning his friends that just a little unbelief, just a little complaining, just a little believing the watered down ideas about who He is that others have to say, can infiltrate and mess up everything.

In fact, it’s not even discarding truth but just letting our hearts be hardened and not taking the time to see and understand what God is doing that leads to our ultimate destruction.  We need to ask God’s Spirit to keep us at attention to what God is actually doing in all our circumstances and what are actions are meant to be to complement His plan.

Never have we needed to do that more than during the challenges of this pandemic when so much of what we see and hear challenges the truth of a powerful and loving God who is actively working on our behalf.  God has done so many miracles and stands ready to do many more if we open our lives up to Him and follow His lead with faith and trust in His goodness.  I believe God is calling us to reach out to Him on behalf of ourselves, our families, our communities, and our nations.  There’s desperate need for what God is offering in a world that has largely forgotten God.  How crucial is our faith filled witness to His power and goodness now?  Let’s not be inactive and sucked in by the news we hear on the television over and over again.  Vaccine rollout is a wonderful thing.  Virus variants are a scary thing.  How to balance the reopening of economies without risking great harm to public health is a complicated issue. 

However, even more challenging is the need for a God who calls us beyond our selves to relationship with Himself and then in caring relationships with others.  A little leaven that underscored man’s ability to think and reason has lead to renouncing the need and even existence of God.  A focus on personal needs and pleasure has so corrupted the moral health of our society, the beauty of commitment in marriage and friendship, and a way of living for the common good of the community as a way to elevate our quality of life rather than diminish it. This “what I want and what is my right” is breaking down more and more social and political order around the world.  We see evidence of it on the news every day.

Someone has said so well:  “When we harden our hearts even just a little bit and refuse to obey God on what we might consider a minor matter, we introduce leaven into our lives that can spread to other areas. It is imperative, therefore, that we regularly repent for our disobedience and seek to obey the Lord in all of life. We should be striving for obedience in all matters, not just the really “big” ones.”

So today we want to pray and respond to Jesus when He tells us, “Beware”

Heavenly Father, we’re so grateful we don’t have to hide away in fear but we truly can live in this world and not be of this world.  You showed us how to do that in Jesus and You’ve given us Your Holy Spirit to help us now put that lifestyle into practice in our world in our time.

And Lord, somehow that word “beware” reminds me of things we need to “be aware of” and so we pray:

Help us Lord to be aware of defining life by our present circumstances rather than by Your promises and Your guiding principles for life.  Forgive us for seeing all kinds of things that You’ve done down through history, even in our own lives, yet failing to allow our understanding of You and Your ways in our lives to be changed by it.  Help us again today, Lord, to be aware of the ways our fears get in the way of the moments of opportunity You present to us in the trials and challenges we face.  Most of all, help us to be aware of our need for faith to trust You and take You at Your word, believing that Your love and power will carry us safely through this day.

Help us Lord.  We understand and we fail to understand.  Fill us again today with Your Holy Spirit so we understand more than we ever have before and rise up in faith as we never have until now and represent Your truth better than ever before so Your kingdom comes and Your will is done here on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen