Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
Luke 9:59
There have been many times that I have felt the call of Christ to spend time with Him, to seek Him in prayer and devotion, and many other times still when I knew I ought to do so, yet thought ‘I need to finish this first, THEN I will go spend time with You’.
That temptation to delay obedience is nagging and persistent, and will draw you away from Him if not taken captive immediately. ‘I need to clean the house, I need to work, I need to take care of this one thing first’. So it was with this man who Jesus called, who gave an excuse to delay his obedience to the call of Christ because of worldly concerns.
How often do we do the same, delaying what God has called us to do for days, months, even years? How often have you thought ‘I can’t stop thinking about this other thing, so I will handle that before I do devotions so that I am not distracted’? Jesus said “let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily”. He said to “Seek FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness”, not seek when you have time or seek when it is convenient. He said to deny your flesh and follow Him, not fulfill it before coming to Him.
He is coming “at an hour you do not expect”, will He come at a time when you have said in your heart ‘I will do this thing first’? When Christ comes, “two men will be in the field” and “two women will be grinding at the mill”, what do you suppose will be the outcome if they have delayed their obedience through the work He finds them doing? Blessed is that faithful and wise steward who remains prepared and expectant!
And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
Luke 12:47