Today's Reading: Matthew 9

Another great crowd of nameless individuals received their sight, their healing and their life in today's reading. What struck me more than anything came near the end of the chapter as we see the motive of Jesus become clear. The New Living Translation says this (36) "He felt great pity for the crowds that came, because their problems were so great and they didn't know where to go for help. They were like sheep without a shepherd."

Do you ever find yourself looking the problems of others and say "they get what they deserve" or "this is too big of a problem to do anything about it"? I do. That's my cop-out quite honestly. The word "pity" has become a negative in our society but Jesus felt such great pity and compassion that he had to move into action on their behalf. Whether they deserved this pain or not - whether the problem was too big to handle or not. Jesus was moved into action

The whole scene ends with a plea from Christ: "Pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send out more workers for his fields." We are to be those workers! Sometimes, I want desperately to be that workers, then other times I'm not so sure I can sacrifice what I need to in order to accomplish the task. Know what I mean? Forgive me, Lord!

Are we praying:
1) to the Lord regarding our ministry to others?
2) "here I am Lord, send me"

Just pondering,
T