Be Prepared - Mark 8:31-9:1

Remember Trivial Pursuit? The object of the game is to move around the board by correctly responding to trivia questions in various categories. While Trivial Pursuit is a fun game, it should not be our way of living. Busy lives make it easy to get lost in the pursuit of things we think are important.

In today's scripture, Jesus starts teaching the disciples about Himself. He is very clear that He must suffer, be rejected, die, and return to life after three days.

Peter doesn't get the message. He takes Jesus aside and rebukes Him. In response, Jesus admonishes Peter. Satan has put wrong thoughts into Peter's mind. Peter is in pursuit of stopping Jesus on His mission.

Jesus makes it clear that souls are too valuable to lose in pursuit of things that don't really matter. No matter what shame and humiliation or what we may have to endure, He must be at the center of our lives.

Satan constantly prowls around waiting for opportunities to get us to sin. He puts temptations before us to pursue wrong things and get us off track. Sometimes we don't see it, sometimes we know we are headed on the wrong path, but we sin anyway.

To guard our lives against sin and temptation we must be prepared by keeping our faith in God strong, being in the Word of God constantly, and having a meaningful daily prayer life. Remember our soul is priceless. We shouldn’t give it to anyone but God.

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The Voice

Our daughter, when she was about four, was getting into lots of things and testing her limits. My husband called it a lively spirit of scientific exploration. I called it the stage we needed to get out of soon.

One day I pulled her onto my lap.

I said, “Karen, when you start to do something you shouldn’t, stop and listen. If you hear a little voice inside you say “No!” then just don’t do what you are about to do.” She agreed to the plan.

I felt so much power and peace. I was sure that I had solved the whole problem!

NOT! That same afternoon she came running into the house sobbing. She told me the whole story of what she had done.

She took a deep breath in between sobs and said, “Mommy, I heard that little voice just like you said, but I HAD to do it anyway!”

Then my favorite part, she threw her arms around me and warmed my heart with, “I’m sorry, mommy!”

“I love you, Karen,” I whispered.

This story is amusing until we realize that, as adults, we do the same thing. There are times when we ignore what the voice behind us is telling us. We take the wrong path.

We know we can turn toward God and ask His forgiveness. He will be by our side to love us through whatever we have done wrong.

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21 (NIV)

Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Romans 7:20 (NIV)