If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.'"

Mark 11: 3

Have you noticed how the level of noise on the airwaves is increasing at a deafening pace?  Have you observed how public personalities hog the TV screens and dominate the radio stations every day?  Have you seen how lying and misinformation no longer leave us appalled or broken?  Instead, in many cases such conduct only elicits knowing chuckles, eye winks and Saturday Night Live skits.  We laugh, as though the joke is on them, when in reality, the joke is on us.  The state of our world is a call for Christians to arise and shine.  The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few (Mark 9:37).

 But wait, all is not lost.  God, who is loving and gracious, has prepared the church for days such as these.  Speaking to his disciples concerning the man born blind, Jesus says, “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.  While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  Jesus lives in every believer right now; his light is in the world and we must do his works, urgently.

Yet those who’ve tried to answer the call of our Heavenly Father know only too well, that the bystanders are always in the way asking questions, “Why are you doing this?”  In other words, why are you doing this when everyone else is doing something different?  Who do you think you are?  How can you ever hope to succeed where so many have failed?  Mark 11:3 reminds us how we ought to be in the face of doubt and opposition.

Jesus instructs the disciples, when anyone says to you, “Why are you doing this?” just say,” 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.'"  It’s really that simple.  You don’t even have to figure it out yourself.  If the Lord says, “do it” go ahead and do it.  It’s the same lesson we find in John 2:5 when Mary the mother of Jesus tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”  Because whatever you surrender to the Lord, he will send it back transformed.  Until that Sunday morning, the colt was inexperienced, but after an encounter with Jesus, it became the most famous colt in the universe.

Is God calling you into the mission field?  Are you afraid to say, “yes?”  Are you surrounded by bystanders who question your judgment?  That, is completely normal.  But now is the hour; it is still day and you must do the works of him who sent you.  Do you feel inexperienced?  Good, then God needs you.  He wants to use you just as you are to shine his light in this world and share his truth with the lost.  Your inexperience and weakness will make his glory shine that much brighter.  Now is the time, step out and trust him.

Heavenly Father, you are Truth.  Help me as I go forth in your truth to do what you have called me to do.  In Jesus’ name I pray.  Amen.