Recognizing Jesus

The Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and Thesaurus defines “get ahead of yourself” as “to do something too early, or before you are ready or prepared.” One often hears a public speaker make a remark about getting ahead of himself when he detours from the main subject at hand and goes off track to another item.

While in public speaking “getting ahead of oneself” might be excused as taking the listener on an intriguing detour, it is not recommended when serving God. With kindness and grace, Jesus showed the disciples that going ahead of Him was not the way to succeed.

The disciples were sent on ahead of Jesus to Bethsaida, while he cared for the crowd. In the boat on the lake, the disciples met with strong headwinds that made the journey extremely difficult. They were “straining on the oars” (v. 48). The hardness of their hearts about Jesus feeding the 5,000 led them to fear Jesus as He walked on water toward them. Rather than being comforted, they were “terrified” (v. 50). Instead of being encouraged by the presence of the One who had the ability and power to feed 5,000 with no apparent supplies, they became afraid.

It can be easy for us to make plans that seem pleasing to God but are actually getting ahead of what the Lord wants us to do. We may pray over our plans and offer ideas that will strengthen ministries, but waiting to put our ideas in action is difficult. Yet, to make sure we are not running ahead of the Lord, we have to plan with wisdom and delay our plans if necessary. Thankfully, the Lord may sometimes provide strong winds to slow us down and allow Him to intervene with our plans. Thankfully, too, our attempts at running ahead of the Lord will not stop others from recognizing Jesus.

Pray with Us

Would you pray for the staff of Moody Radio’s KMBI, in Spokane, Wash.? Thank God for the creativity and talent of Chris Wright, Deborah Massey, Joe Gonzalez, and Scott Carlon and ask that they experience joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.

BY Dr. Eric C. Redmond

Dr. Eric C. Redmond serves as a professor of Bible at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and as associate pastor of adult ministries at Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, Ill. He is married to Pam and they have five children. He is the author of Say It!  Celebrating Expository Preaching in the African American Tradition (Moody Publishers), Where Are All the Brothers? Straight Answers to Men's’ Questions about the Church (Crossway), a commentary on Jonah in the Christ-Centered Exposition Series (B&H Publishers), and a study guide on Ephesians in the Knowing the Bible series (Crossway).