It is easy to want Jesus for the healing, peace, and confidence he gives while keeping the rest of life safely under our control. In Matthew 8, however, the One who heals the sick also tells would-be disciples that the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. What does it mean to follow him rather than merely watch?

Study Questions

The following study questions are AI generated and may contain errors.

The pastor uses celebrity culture and the Easter bunny to illustrate how we can follow Jesus superficially, enjoying the excitement without real commitment. What other modern examples can you think of where we treat Jesus like something convenient rather than something that demands our whole lives?
Jesus tells the scribe “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” and tells another disciple to leave his father unburied. How do these responses illustrate the cost of true discipleship, and what are some common excuses people make today that parallel these two men’s hesitations?
The pastor contrasts Peter’s seemingly comfortable situation with the reality that discipleship ultimately cost Peter everything. What does this suggest about the danger of measuring God’s blessing primarily through worldly comfort and security?
The pastor emphasizes that Jesus is not calling everyone to literally give up their homes or jobs, but rather to ensure nothing becomes an idol. What are some subtle ways our modern comforts or priorities might be functioning as idols without us realizing it, and how can we tell the difference between a legitimate responsibility and an excuse to avoid following Jesus?
The sermon closes by distinguishing between Jesus interrupting our worldly priorities versus simply affirming our worldly preferences. How can Christians practically discern whether their current priorities align with following Jesus, and what might “all in” discipleship look like across different life seasons—for parents, singles, retirees, or those in demanding careers?

Transcript

This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.

It’s a wonderful feeling to think about our God having us in His hands, isn’t it? When we think about everything being under control. We look at a week like this week; it’s felt a little topsy-turvy in the world. Just a little, just a little, but He has it all in His hands. We find that comfort, we find that peace—that He is the one who can calm storms, He’s the one who can offer healings. Often, that’s what the people that are encountering Jesus in Matthew 8 are being comforted by, right?

Here’s a man; we don’t know exactly who he is, we don’t fully understand him, but here’s a man who can heal people. We like when people can do things for us; they can make us feel confident, even if there isn’t that actual concrete result there, right? I think that’s one of the reasons if you go to any supermarket and you’re going to check out, it doesn’t really matter where you go—well, I don’t think Aldi—but otherwise, anywhere you go, what are you going to find at the checkout? Well, you’re going to find a bunch of magazines, right? And you look at these magazines, and there are a lot of faces on those magazines, and you know what? You probably recognize a lot of those faces. You probably never met any of them, but you know who they are.

Oftentimes those magazines not only have faces that you recognize on them, of course, the candy’s right below it too, right? So you’re kind of going between the faces and the candy, the idea of candy bars, maybe. But then you go back up and you start reading the headlines, and you know what’s going on with these people. Someone’s getting divorced, someone is undergoing treatment for some disease, someone just settled a lawsuit, and you’ve been wondering if that was going to happen. Now, why have you been wondering all these things, and why do you know these faces, and yet you haven’t met them? It’s because they’re celebrities.

We love celebrity culture, and it’s not really new to us; it’s been true for a very long time. We know these people, but we don’t know these people. But oftentimes we become quite defensive for certain ones of these people, and quite defensive against others of these people, right? Ones that just, we’re pleased, ah, I’m so glad that settlement’s working out because those bums that were suing so-and-so, that’s just terrible. I don’t know the bums or the person, but you know, yay, that’s great, right? Think about that for a moment.

We all do that. We all know all these people that don’t know us; they couldn’t pick us out from Adam himself, and yet somehow we get wrapped up in their lives, and we take sides, and form teams, and it might even cause arguments with people we actually do know if they’ve taken the other side in some big celebrity fight, right? How can you support so-and-so? She’s awful.

I was thinking about that. Why do we do that? Well, because we hear about them, we hear their triumphs, and their not-so-triumphant moments, and somehow resonate with them, or we appreciate his acting, or her singing, or whoever’s painting, right? And we take it in, and we feel like this is something that means something to me, and we buy into it, and we can be on team so-and-so, or who’s who, and it doesn’t actually cost us anything, other than maybe our eyeballs at the supermarket, or the $3 to buy, or $10 probably now, to buy the magazine. You know how often I buy magazines at the supermarket, but however much it is to buy it, or however long it takes to type in the gossip website so we can find it out, that’s all it really costs us. It doesn’t cost us anything.

What would happen, though, if it actually did cost us something? Like, severely cost us something. Favorite actor. To be a fan of that actor, you had to give up your job. To listen to that singer’s albums, you had to move to a different state. What would it be like then? Would we still get all invested in it? No, I think we’d say, oh, you know, that’s not really so important. I think I’m okay without it, for the most part. I know there’s the true believers, right? There’s going to be somebody who’s going to do it, but generally speaking, for all of us here, I don’t think any of us are going to quit our jobs so we can follow a celebrity, or move so we can follow a celebrity. We’re not going to do that. It’s that cheap, low cost. I feel good because I can kind of, when there’s a triumph, I can feel pretty good about it. When the people that I don’t like are being put down by the celebrity I do like, I can feel good about it. Kind of have a hero here. But then I can hit the button on the clicker and move on to something else on the TV, and it doesn’t hurt.

We want celebrities. We want heroes we can follow from a comfortable distance. As we continue here in Matthew 8, Jesus is going to challenge the people who have been following him because they are treating him increasingly like a celebrity, right? Here is Rabbi Jesus. Look, he’s on the cover of People of Jerusalem magazine. Will he get into a fight with Rabbi so-and-so this week? Romans surround town after Rabbi Jesus has quick exit. All the headlines. And yet it doesn’t feel like it costs that much because you just disappear into the general crowd, and then the next time he shows up, maybe you go and you hear him again. It doesn’t seem to cost that much.

But Jesus didn’t want a bunch of people just following him around. He wanted people to follow him. A profoundly different thing. And so Jesus is going to do another healing here, but as we’re going to see, he’s going to say, but wait, I need you to actually do something other than just watch.

Let’s pray that as we continue to follow him, that we would also be those who do more than watch. Let’s pray.

Father, thank you for this evening. We thank you for your word, and we pray that as we go into it tonight, that you would help us. We wouldn’t be those who just read your word, listen to your word, spend a little time turning on a podcast about your word. We would be those who actually do it. As you call us to follow you, if we wouldn’t follow along, we would follow. We pray this in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.

We’re going to turn to verse 14 if you want to turn there, Matthew chapter 8. And it says, “And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

Undoubtedly, and this is something we’re supposed to take from this chapter, Jesus heals, right? We’ve been seeing that over the last few weeks. We see it again here. Jesus heals. He heals those who are close to him, right? He heals Peter’s mother-in-law. That’s nice, right? But then all kinds of other people are coming too, and they’re all coming to Peter’s house, and Peter suddenly is throwing his giant block party because all these people have the problems they’ve been facing, and they say, we heard what happened, Pete, can we bring somebody over? And so they do.

It’s spiritual battles, right? We have demons being cast out. Two distinct things happening: demons being cast out and healings taking place for illness. So Jesus is confronting both the spiritual world and the physical world, the brokenness of the fallen world in both cases. And as he does it, it builds, right? It’s been building here as he does more and more healing. Of course, people see the healing, and they say, wow, this is pretty good.

It’s like if a celebrity announces, some singer announces, if you come outside my house, I’m going to give you a free ticket to a concert. It’s going to be wild, right? Taylor Swift is going to give out free tickets for a concert. People are going to get hurt, right? There’s going to be a stampede. Free tickets? Those cost like a car. Come on. Two cars. Okay, yeah, yeah, right, right, yeah. It’s a new era.

And so people are coming, right? Free tickets to see Jesus. We can come and see Jesus. He’s going to heal us. And so more and more people are coming. It’s pretty good. Hey, look at Peter. Peter even gets special access, right? All these people want healing, but what happens first? Peter’s mother-in-law, she’s healed. She’s sick. She gets healed. Wow, it pays to be a disciple of Jesus. This is pretty neat.

And at this point, you look at Peter’s life; it sounds pretty comfortable. As one commentator pointed out, I thought this was something that never really caught my attention on this particular scene all that much before. But think about it here. Peter lives in this house. His brother Andrew lives in this house. His mother-in-law lives in this house. There’s room for a crowd to come in this house. It seems reasonable to speculate Peter might live in a pretty nice house. All this stuff going on here.

Look how many people are coming and gathering at Peter’s house here. Mark 1, verse 32, the parallel to this: “That evening at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons, the whole city. The whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons. He would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him.”

So, Jesus wants certain people to know him. He doesn’t want the demons to know him. But there’s all these demons there because people are bringing the demon oppressed. And the whole city is gathered here at Peter’s house. Peter, I mean, you have to have some room around that house to gather all these people. I don’t know exactly. I don’t want to overshoot how big Peter’s house is. But needless to say, Peter probably is starting to be a bit of a celebrity here too because people are saying, you know, he hangs out with Jesus. His family members get healed. He looks like he’s doing okay.

Yeah, Jesus has said some things already that sound kind of difficult. But you know what? Peter’s living in this nice house. Things seem pretty good. Maybe we can have the same. Maybe Jesus will come to our house and heal our families. And then we’ll be the people that everyone wants to visit. And people will be coming to our house. We don’t have to worry about sending out invitations for parties. We just have Jesus come over and everyone comes over. It works great. If you’re an extrovert. Different problem if you’re an introvert.

But anyway, they’re all together. All this excitement. All this happening. It looks like a pretty comfortable, pretty exciting, pretty celebrity-ish life, right? The paparazzi of the demon oppressed are there. And that suits us just fine. We’re comfortable with that. We want that part of what Jesus does.

Reminds me of years ago. Do you remember the Hostess commercials? They had all kinds. The first one was a bear and he’s in the woods. And there are these people in their bright yellow RV, metal RV, out in the woods camping. And they’re enjoying themselves out in the woods and having a nice meal. And the bear is coming closer and closer. And then he starts pouncing and attacking the top of the RV. And you think they’re having barbecue inside. He must want the barbecue. And he rips open the RV and he sticks his head in and looks around and he says, “Where’s the cream filling?” Because he thought it was a giant Twinkie. And he’s disappointed there’s no cream filling.

And there’s this whole series of commercials like that. Another one with a shark attacking a woman that has a swimsuit on. It looks sort of like the little decoration on top of a cupcake. And he knocks her out of the water and says, “Where’s the cream filling?” It’s, of course, absurd. But it’s kind of true about us, right? Because even the things that are pretty good, we’re looking for the cream filling. Where’s that extra special middle part? If you get a Twinkie and they forgot to put the cream filling in it, you, too, are going to say, “Where’s the cream filling?” It has to have—yeah, yeah, yeah. Can I have an amen? Yeah, definitely. You’ve got to have the cream filling.

And for the people following Jesus, they think they’ve hit the jackpot because they think they’re just going to get a big vat of cream filling. We don’t even need to mess with the sponge cake, right? The bear doesn’t want the outside shell of the RV. He just wants the cream filling inside. He doesn’t care how tough the outside is. Just give me that cream filling. And we say to Jesus, “You know, just give us the cream filling. It looks pretty good. It looks like Peter’s living high on the hog here. Everything is really good. Just give us that. That’s good enough.”

When God’s doing exciting stuff, it’s really easy to be drawn to him, to come and say, “Okay, I’m going to go charging. I’m going to rip open that metal RV and I’m going to stick my head inside because there must be cream filling in there. God is doing exciting things. Give it to me. I’m ready for it. I’m ready for that.” It makes sense to respond, right? No cost, no harm. It’s just like rooting for your favorite celebrity. There’s no cost to it unless you get in a fight over the water cooler. There’s no cost to it because the celebrity is never going to call you up and say, “Hey, you know, that last fight, the one you saw on the tabloid while you were checking out, I’m really struggling with it. Can we talk?” Never going to happen. It’s low cost. Never going to stay up late at night comforting the person that you know what he looks like or what she looks like.

People here, they didn’t think they’re going to have to spend a lot of time really going and sitting, having late night discussions with Jesus. All they wanted was to be healed. And all you have to do is show up and he heals people. This sounds really good. When there’s a nice bandwagon and you can hop on it, it’s really easy to get excited.

But now that Jesus has been doing these healings, now he needs to help people understand, well, why am I doing the healings? What does it really involve? Because being a disciple isn’t easy. What they’re seeing of Peter’s life here, even if it says we might reconstruct here, and even if it was pretty good, even if it was a pretty nice house, and he had a really nice fishing boat and he had really nice reels and nuts and, and, and he had the hat with all the cool hooks on it. And it was really exciting. Even if he had all that, it wasn’t going to stay that way for Peter. It wasn’t going to stay that way for any of the disciples. Being a disciple isn’t easy.

Verse 18:

“Now, when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘The foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ Another of the disciples said to him, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead.’”

Jesus says, “I’m not trying to get you to follow the latest headline that I have in the newspaper. I know I show up in your town and it’s really easy to follow me around town. But do you really want to follow me?” And he starts to move them in that direction by moving, right? The crowd’s here. And so Jesus gives orders and they go to the other side. Okay. Are you willing to come? It’s really convenient when you walk down to Peter’s house and we show up and we all do a big healing festival together. Isn’t this great? Are you willing to come to the other side of the lake? And some of the people say, “Well, you know, I kind of wanted to go on a picnic anyway.” Okay. We’ll go over to the other side of the lake. It’s fine.

So we have here this scribe who says, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And it sounds really good, doesn’t it? Yeah. He’s gotten it. So then Jesus responds about foxes having a place, birds having a place. I mean, foxes have a place, birds have a place, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.

Well, Jesus, he said he was going to follow you. What in the world does it mean here? Jesus, here, here’s a man. Why are you trying to discourage him? He wants to follow you, Jesus. But if you look at what he’s actually saying, I think what the scribe means is yes, indeed, Jesus, I’ll go across the lake with you. No problem. It’s nice over there. What he doesn’t mean is, I’ll let my life get utterly ripped apart if necessary to follow you. Yeah, I’ll still go home to my nice home and it’ll be comfortable. I’ll still go back to my job the next day and keep writing down the scriptures and living a comfortable life and being a respected member of the community. But I’ll follow you across the lake, Jesus. If you want to go across the lake every Sunday, I’ll go. No problem.

Scribe, I looked at Peter. Hey, this doesn’t look so bad. She said, well, let me tell you what it’s really like. Want to sign up still? We don’t hear any more of the man. I don’t think he does choose to follow. He says, “I like the Jesus he heals inside his disciple’s house. That’s a really nice, comfortable house. It holds a bunch of people. I like that. I like that. I like that. I like that. I like that part, Jesus. That’s a good deal.”

One person said, these are disciples on the edge. They’re disciples in the loose sense even of the time. We see that here with the next one. Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And we think, well, which one of the 12? No, this isn’t the 12. This is the larger group. And he’s been maybe traveling with Jesus a little bit. He’s sort of, he says, it’s not so bad to go on a bit of a road tour. I like doing that every once in a while. I mean, I still have things to do, but I enjoy when I can follow around with you, Jesus.

And Jesus challenges the first man. First man’s maybe not so sure of that, but the second man says, “Well, let me just get everything settled in my life first.” Now it sounds a little extreme here. He says, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And you say, Jesus won’t let him even have a funeral. What are you doing Jesus? What are you doing here?

But it seems more than likely since this man is actually with Jesus at this time, what he doesn’t mean is that his father just died that morning and he’s come and visited Jesus when he should be tending to the family matters. What it seems that it means is, you know, someday his father’s going to die. I have to help dad run the family business, but when he dies, how about this Jesus, I will sell everything and I’ll follow you then. Just let me get my life in order first. Eventually, I’ll do this. We’ll get there, Jesus. Don’t worry.

Jesus said to him, “Follow me and leave the dead to bury their own.” If you’re chasing after the things of this earth, you’re not really being a disciple of mine. If you’re chasing after the things of this earth, come and follow me.

Now, even if it were the way we often read it—and I think there’s a lot to commend the idea that he’s actually speaking metaphorically here, and it’s a more extended period of time—but even the other, think about the Old Testament law. Jesus saying, just treat what you’re doing by following me as urgently as you would if you were a priest serving in the temple. Numbers chapter six, verse six: “All the days that he separates himself to the Lord, he shall not go near a dead body, not even for his father or for his mother, for brother or sister. If they die, shall he make himself unclean because of separation to God is on his head.”

When Jesus is calling his disciples, he’s saying, this is what was asked of every single priest to come into the presence of the Lord. And now you’re standing here and I’m actually inviting you as the Lord to come follow me. Don’t treat it as less urgent. If the worldly, the things of the world, are urgent, don’t treat it as less urgent. If the worldly things are urgent, don’t treat it as less urgent. If the worldly, the things of the world, the things that normally you would do, the things that you normally should do get in the way of you actually following me, don’t do them.

Did Peter have a really nice house? We don’t know all the details, but here, here’s what I think we can say: even if he did, Peter was not there for the cream filling alone. At least he wasn’t ultimately. What do we know about Peter? Peter was all in by the end, by the, as the Holy Spirit strengthened Peter, what did Peter do? He went around and preached the gospel. He wasn’t sitting back in his comfortable home. Peter went and faced people who wanted to kill him. Peter actually ultimately died at the hands of people that wanted to kill him. And I don’t care how nice your house is. If people are executing you, you’re not enjoying your house.

Peter wasn’t there just for the cream filling. He was willing to give everything. And that’s the challenge to all of us. What are our idols? What are the places we’re holding on? We say, Jesus, I want to follow you, but here, this is the thing. This isn’t a big deal. Jesus, just let me bury my father before I follow you. Let me do, let me just get to retirement and then I’ll follow you. I’ll have a nice, a nice nest egg. It’ll be okay. Then I’ll follow you. Then I’ll go and do what you’ve been calling me to do.

I’m not saying everyone needs to quit their job any more than Jesus went to Peter. And the first thing he told Peter was, “You need to sell your house. No disciple of mine can ever own a house.” I think it’s intentional that we have a contrast here. As Jesus talks about how being a disciple might mean lack of worldly comfort there in Peter’s house and just traveled from Peter’s house. That’s the context there, right? No one is going to miss the fact that Jesus knows that Peter has a house. It wasn’t a secret hidden investment that Peter hadn’t told Jesus about. And Jesus didn’t know about, which of course is absurd anyway, but they didn’t necessarily know that, but they don’t have to wonder that they know that. Peter has a house. Jesus knows that Peter has a house. Everybody knows that Peter has a house.

What Jesus is challenging is, are you only willing to follow me if you have that house? Are you willing to follow me if there isn’t any cream filling at the moment? Are you all in only for that?

Here we are several months out from Easter. It’s an interesting time of the year as I understand it for animal shelters. Because what do people love to do at Easter time? People love to get chicks and they love to get bunnies. And, of course, you can get the stuffed ones, but every year there’s always new stories on this. People will go and they’ll go adopt a baby rabbit because he’s so cute. Right?

And you get that rabbit and you can have this wonderful celebration on Easter. The little bunny sitting there just doing his little bunny thing, his little ears, it’s so great. And then you get into May, he’s a little bigger bunny. June, he’s a little bigger bunny and bunnies need daily exercise time in their little familiar setting time outside their familiar setting, stretching their little bunny legs. If when they’re out, you need to make sure the house is proof so that they’re not chewing the wires to your entertainment center and so on. Bunnies are a lot of work.

And so what inevitably happens, people say, you know, it was really fun for Easter. He looked really great in that basket. And now, you know where he’d look really great? He’d look really great at the animal rescue. ‘Cause I don’t want to have to do this anymore. I mean, about that time people start looking at the information online and realize, wait, bunnies can live a decade or more. Yeah. He’s not that cute. Done. We’re done with the bunny, right? But bunny’s going, Peter’s going, uh, Peter Cottontail is going to the animal rescue. And, and so off he goes. And every year, there’s a plea at Easter time to remember June and July and August and September when it’s not exciting, funny Easter anymore. It’s the bunny. Needs to have his litter box cleaned and he needs to go out for his hop around the house. And it’s not just that fun Easter picture anymore. And you’re rewiring your entertainment center for the third time.

You think about that and you think about how we basically treat Jesus not a lot like an Easter bunny. There’s certain times a year. It’s really kind of cute to come and be with Jesus, right? We can come at Easter. We can come at Christmas, or maybe we can even come every week and we have that special day of the week when we pull the bunny out, right? We will pull Jesus out. He was resurrected. This is wonderful. And then we go back and say, okay, now Jesus go right back into your box. We’ll come back for you next week. Because it’s really, you keep chewing on the wires of my life. I really wanted that entertainment center. And Jesus says, no, I’m going to chew through it.

I really want that promotion. And Jesus says, no, I’m going to chew through the wires of the extra time that you’re going to put into work. I really didn’t want to have to be nice to that neighbor. And Jesus chews through the wires of our ability to ignore the neighbor. And Jesus does that over and over.

And Jesus, you’re really getting annoying here.

“I’ll follow you wherever. I’ll follow you wherever, as long as it’s only to the comfortable seat that I always sit at church. Don’t worry, Jesus. I come all the way across. I can live on the other side of Lake St. Louis. I’ll cross the lake and I’ll come here. Right? No problem.”

Jesus says, “No, I have more for you than that.” We want an Easter bunny. No, I have more for you than that. We get to June and there’s not the pretty pomp and circumstance of Easter. It’s just Jesus saying, you need to actually follow me. And we say, isn’t there a savior rescue somewhere around here? We can, someone else can take care of you. It’s too much. We’re willing to follow Jesus, even when it seems like there’s only costs and not reward.

And most of us probably haven’t actually had bunnies, but we’ve followed Jesus. And we’re willing to follow Jesus. And most of us probably haven’t actually had bunnies, but we’ve all probably had pets. And we know that pets, sometimes it feels like there’s lots of reward. And sometimes it feels like there’s very little reward. And if you’re actually going to be a good pet owner, you’re going to have to buy a lot more into the times that you just go through the time without reward. And so it is with every meaningful thing in life.

Right here we are on Father’s Day. There are times where fathers are not going to find a lot of joy and cream filling. If you aren’t a father, but you’ve been a father of faith to somebody and you’re mentoring them and you’re walking alongside them, you know, there’s going to be a lot of times where it’s not exactly cream filling. It’s not exactly enjoyable. We’re willing to do the hard things Jesus is calling us to.

We say, that sounds like legalism, right? Do I have to earn? No, Jesus is not saying here, if you don’t do this perfectly, if you don’t do this, well, I don’t want you. What Jesus is saying is what I want to know, what I want you to commit to is that all these other things, even the ones you struggle to let go of, they’re not your God. They’re not your God.

Because so often that’s exactly what they are. We might not say it. We might sing praises to Jesus, but what actually determines how we orient ourselves? What determines when we’re willing and not willing to worship Jesus? What determines when we are and are not willing to go and serve Jesus?

Jesus did not call every single person in scripture to live without a home. He didn’t call everyone to quit their job and be itinerant begging preachers. He didn’t do those things, but he did say, don’t let anything on this earth be the thing that you’re actually worshiping, the thing that you actually have your trust in, the thing that determines whether you’re willing to do something or not. Yes, I’m going to give you wisdom and I’m going to call you to live in this earth. And because of that, there are going to be times that you need to do things on this earth, but don’t let those be your God. Let me interrupt your worldly priorities rather than expecting me to always affirm your worldly preferences.

That’s uncomfortable. But because of the way we are, we often miss that first with Jesus. We want to just have that cream filling, Jesus, and it’s really nice just to talk about the good and the easy. And ultimately it is easy. Because why? Because we can’t earn it. Jesus is the one who does it for us.

But in the process of that, he’s going to work on us. He’s saying, I want you to actually follow me. Jesus has always called people to follow him and not just the benefits around him. And may we be with those who are willing to do that today. Would you pray with me, please?

Lord, we do pray that you would help us to be those who are willing to follow, even when it’s hard. And Lord, when it is hard, when it is difficult, would you help us to still do what you’ve called us to do? Would you grant us the strength to do it, not in ourselves, but through you? Would you help us to hold nothing as greater than you, but be thankful as you do bless us that we would see that not as the thing that we must have, but rather the thing that we must have is always and only you. We pray this in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.