Great Plains Daily Devotional for 6/26/2019

Luke 9:37-43 

On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astounded at the greatness of God.

While everyone was amazed at all that he was doing, he said to his disciples,

When my dad was alive, if I needed money, I would ask him. He never said no but he did always say, “Bring back what you don’t need.” When it came to someone in need, he was willing to help every time.

When I was young, he ran a gas station on a corner in a little town. He helped many people from that corner. One day a station wagon containing a couple and five or six kids pulled into the drive on fumes. The man driving asked Dad to put in a dollar’s worth of gas. Back then gas was around 16 cents a gallon. That dollar, it turned out, was all the man had left. He explained to dad that they were trying to get to where they had other family and a job waiting. As the mother tried to quiet the children, Dad heard one of the kids say something about being hungry. Hearing that, Dad pulled a dollar out of his own pocket, handed it to the father and told him there was a grocery store at the other end of the block. The mother quickly ran down the block and was able to buy bread, lunch meat and milk to feed the family. Not only did he get this family groceries but he refused payment and sent them on their way with a tank full of gas.

The father of the boy in this passage of scripture is asking for help for his son. He’s asking Jesus to help someone else. I know asking for help is a hard thing to do. And in this day and age, stories like the one above are not always believed. When I think I need to ask for help, my next thought is, someone else has it worse or I should have managed things better to not be in this situation. I personally go a long time before I will ask. But there comes a time in each person’s life when they need help of some kind. Jesus healed the man’s son. Do we let pride keep us from asking for help when we really could use a hand?

-Beth Goetzinger
administrative assistant
Mitchell Chapel UMC
bshug1211@cox.net
 

Prayer for Reflection

1 Kings 19:1-15a
Psalm 42
Galations 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39