Depending on God

Jesus sends His disciples out in pairs to preach and to heal. He is very specific in His instructions to them. First, the disciples are not to take anything with them on their journey. No money, no extra clothes, and no extra food should be a distraction from their message or give people the wrong idea about their purpose. Traveling without all of these extra provisions not only helped people to focus on their teaching, but also caused the disciples to remain completely dependent on God for the duration of their journey. All meals and resources would be met by God along the way. This was very crucial not only for the disciples to grow in their trust of God, but also to show that their message of trusting in God was proclaimed by men who themselves depended on Him wholeheartedly.

Second, the disciples would stay where they were we welcomed, and would leave from wherever they were rejected, dusting off their feet as they went. They communed and fellowshipped with those who received them and their message, taking more time to teach them and build relationships with them. But if people rejected them, they would dust off their feet as a sign that they would not have any connection with them. The disciples would respond to people’s reaction to their teaching. How might Jesus’ instructions to take nothing extra on the journey be applied to the way we approach serving Jesus?