September 20th

September 20th -- Mark 14:26-52

Read the passage, please!

Jesus brought along three disciples to keep watch. Twice they fell asleep. It makes me think of all the times we make promises or say without giving much thought to it that we'll do something for someone, then we fall through. It's so easy to commit to those things and not follow through on them. Just like the disciples said they'd stay awake but slept, often we say we'll help all we can and when the time comes that we are needed, we back away making excuses as to why we no longer can. We need to be more reliable. A while ago I talked about how God says whatever we do to "the least of these" we do to Him. That includes when we leave them hanging because of a promise or commitment. Leaving them hanging is just like leaving God hanging. The disciples did it to Jesus, but I can't imagine how horrible I'd feel if I had done it - I'm sure they feel horrible as well. So instead of thinking "Oh, but it was just ___ or ___ and ____(name) is only human like me and I'm sure they've done it before" own up to your mistake. Apologize. Mean it when you do. Be truly sorry, as if you had just done that to God. In a way, you did.

God bless! Shalom!