"But Jesus replied, "We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came." (Mark 1:38, NLT) I have read through the Bible a few times. I have encountered many characters in the Bible. I have read inspiring stories and touching stories about so many persons from the scriptures. I have also read a few books and success stories. But I have never come across any person as committed to their purpose and goal in life like Jesus was! He just had such an amazing sense of purpose. He could place His finger on what exactly He needed to do at any given time. He was very focused. Many times people tried to offer Him things that were not in line with His goals. As enticing and appealing as those things were, He always declines by telling them why He came. It was this commitment to purpose; and stick-to-itiveness that underscored the success of His ministry. Question now is how committed are you to your vision, goal, purpose, etc? .
Let me elaborate here. In the text on Mark 1:38, Jesus instructed His disciples that they must go over to the other villages and preach because that was why He came: to preach. But that is not all there is to it. The previous day Jesus had held a successful crusade in front of Simon's mother in-law's house. The Bible records that He healed many persons and cast out a lot of demons. And the following morning while He was praying, the disciples met Him and said to Him, "Everyone is looking for you" (v. 37)!
For most of us that would have been the turning point of our ministry. We would capitalize on the newly-gained popularity to acccomplish more. It wouldn't be a bad idea to just settle in that village, start a church and become the senior pastor and spend the time "working" for God. While that will be a noble and wonderful thing to do, but in this case it would be the wrong thing to do because it was totally in contrast to Jesus' purpose and goals. Sometimes the challenges you will face in your goals are not failures but initial successes. Some successes are very enticing that if you let yourself get carried away by them you will lose your purpose.
To be continued...