Daily Devotional for Thursday, February 12

James and John’s Request to Jesus

“And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?” Luke 9:54.

Our four-year-old is an ambitious little fella, as most kids are. He wants to do things he should not do for safety or other reasons. Our neighborhood is overrun with deer. Even though we have plenty of residences, there are also plenty of woods around us. Because of new developments, many of the trees have disappeared and the deer have nowhere to go. As such, they are almost domesticated. It is not unusual to walk outside and see ten or fifteen deer standing in our yard, unafraid of us. We try to point them out to our toddler, and invariably, he will ask if he can pet them.

On more than one occasion I have tried to explain to him the dangers inherent in a little boy trying to pet a wild deer. Even though these deer are less timid than your typical whitetails, they will still snort and let you know that you are trespassing on their property. But that is the joy of being a little boy. You touch animals you should not, go places you should not and discover things you should leave alone. I must remind him repeatedly that he is limited because he is a little boy and they are big deer.

I think James and John were ambitious in this text. These two men wanted to rain down fire on the Samaritan village that had been inhospitable to Jesus and His group. I can almost picture them casually walking up to the Son of God and Creator of the universe and calmly suggesting they mete out judgment on this village. But Jesus rebuked them for even suggesting it (verses 55, 56). He did not need their help handling things.

CHALLENGE

Let God handle your problems. He is best equipped to do it anyway.

 Chris Floyd