By Andrew Williams
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so they could go and anoint Him. Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb at sunrise. They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb for us? ”
Mark 16:1-3 HCSB
Good morning fellow disciples.
Have you ever decided to do something, made the preparations, and then when you’re finally about to do the task you realize that one aspect was not thought out properly?
Here we see the ladies going to anoint Jesus’ body. They are on their way, they have the spices, they are going as a group, but while they are walking, they realize that no one is there to roll away the heavy stone. What a big oversight!
We see the dedication of these women and the love that they have for Jesus. This reminds me of some of us who are dedicated to church and dedicated to the Lord. However, that love, and dedication is not backed up by proper planning.
We go to church, and we go out on the ministry field without being properly prepared. It is when we are in the midst of doing what we know to do that we realize that a key element for the proper execution of our plan is missing.
One of the big omissions we have in our ministry is the absence of God’s Holy Spirit. Without Him, we will never be able to roll away the stones that keep us from fulfilling our ministry.
Even though we may be like these ladies who made the plans the best way they knew how to, but forgot a key ingredient, let us also recognize what is missing and make the adjustments so that we can be effective ministers.
Prayer: Father God, help us to see what is missing from our plans to be effective disciples. We need to see the bigger picture, Lord. We need to think outside our boxes, so that Your will, will be done. Help us to always seek You, help us never to leave the Holy Spirit out of our plans, and help us to make the adjustments when we realize that our plans will fail without You. Amen