Daily Devotional for Thursday, February 5

Jesus and Three Disciples

“And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray,” Luke 9:28.

God is often preparing us for higher service. God, in His infinite wisdom, has chosen human instrumentality to carry out His work. Some of the servants of God are young, like teenage David when he answered the challenge of Goliath. Then there was Noah who was above five hundred years old when God commissioned him to build the ark. Young or old or in between, one common thread is that God is guiding and providing.

God prepared me for ministry. Through the Future Farmers of America organization, God allowed me to compete as a public speaker, an extemporaneous speaker, and participate as a team member on a competition parliamentary procedure team, one that eventually won the Arkansas state competition in 1979. At the time, I had no idea what God was doing, but just a few months later He called me to the pastoral ministry where I would use these skills on a regular basis.

Why did Jesus take Peter, James and John with Him to the mountain? He could have gone alone and had the same conversation with Elijah and Moses. Could it be that Jesus, knowing the plans He had for these men, wanted them to be prepared for ministry that lay ahead? At the mountain, these three disciples saw Jesus transfigured into His future glory. They never got over the experience (2 Peter 1:16). The spread of the gospel in a hostile world would take deep commitment and a resolve to stand for the Savior even to the death. Such was the commitment of Peter, James and John, who all eventually died for the faith. Certainly, these men, the inner circle of Jesus, would need to revisit this experience many times for encouragement.

FINAL THOUGHT

Can you identify experiences in your life that God may be using to prepare you for a higher service?

John Nations