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PRAYER FOR TODAY
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Monday July 7 - Be warned
“Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the
Pharisees and that of Herod.” Mark 8:15
Following the amazing miracle of feeding the 4000, the disciples crossed the lake but forgot to bring bread – that is, all but one loaf! You have to smile; they’d had at their disposal seven man-sized baskets of leftovers! However, Jesus was more interested in talking about yeast than bread. “Be careful,” Jesus warned them; “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.” Once again they were slow on the uptake; they thought Jesus was talking about having no bread, but in fact he was speaking of something far more important.
Yeast is unseen; it works powerfully beneath the surface. In the Bible, reference to yeast represents the sin in a person’s heart. In preparation for the Passover, the people of Israel had to remove every trace of yeast from their homes. Sin must not be left unattended because it will spread and infect the whole loaf: ‘A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough’ (Galatians 5:9). Jesus cries out, “Beware, guard against it!” Pharisees promoted legalism and religious hypocrisy, while Herodians embraced the philosophy and culture of the Roman occupiers.
The disciples were more interested in their stomachs, but Jesus gave a salutary warning to guard how we feed our minds. James, Jesus’ brother, puts it this way: ‘keep yourself from being polluted by the world’ (James 1:27). So let’s pray:
Father, I am sorry for the ‘yeast’ I allow into my mind. Holy Spirit, please guard my heart and mind, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Tuesday July 8 - Be discerning
Jesus... rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have
in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Mark 8:33
In this chapter of Mark’s gospel, we arrive at a watershed – here we find Jesus openly declaring, and then on the mountaintop revealing, that he is the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus goes on to explain that he “must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again” (v 31). Peter had earlier been warned not to take on board ungodly thoughts and to keep his heart pure (Mark 8:15), but seemingly at the first opportunity he rebuked Jesus. On a human level you can understand Peter – he cannot imagine a life without Jesus – but that’s just the point, of how we can allow ‘human concerns’ to be the driver of our thinking and subsequent actions.
This was such a key issue that ‘Jesus turned and looked at his disciples and rebuked Peter’ (v 33). It was to be a public lesson for every disciple. Note, Jesus did not say, “Get behind me, Peter!” but he addressed Satan! Jesus discerned the source of this outburst. Peter was rebuked for allowing it, but it was Satan who was to be sent packing. Human emotion can be so powerful that it can even challenge the Lordship of Christ and the authority of God’s word. Let’s come before God in prayer:
Heavenly Father, help me to demolish arguments and pretensions that set themselves up against the knowledge of God, taking captive every thought and making it obedient to Christ. Amen.
PRAYER FOR TODAY