Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
Matthew 8:21
Often our struggle as Christians is not in deciding whether we should obey Christ but in obeying immediately. We may acknowledge our need to follow Christ and commitourselves to do what He has told us. Yet when God reveals His will tous, that is the time to obey! God’s revelation of His will is Hisinvitation to respond immediately. Some would-be disciples pledgedtheir willingness to follow Jesus, but they told Him they were notready yet. In Jesus’ day, a Jewish man was expected to care for his elderly parents until they died.
One man wanted to wait until hisfather died before going with Jesus. This would be an honorable delay.The man had to choose between this important responsibility andheeding a call from the Lord. Yet God knew this man, and He knew theman’s father. God would have taken care of the man’s father, if heonly would have followed Jesus. This was an opportunity to walk withthe Son of God, yet the concerns of this life were competing forpriority with obedience to God. Timing our obedience is crucial.Invitations from God come with a limited opportunity to respond. Someopportunities to serve Him, if not accepted immediately, will be lost.Occasions to minister to others may pass us by. When God invites us tointercede for someone, it may be critical that we stop what we aredoing and immediately adjust our lives to what God is doing. Missingopportunities to serve the Lord can be tragic. When an invitationcomes from God, the time to respond is now.
