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Giving God What He Wants


"And they said, The Lord hath need of him." (Luke 19:34)

There is an account in the gospels that God brought to my particular notice today. I have read it more times than I can really recount. Yet, today it captured my attention in a way it never has before. (The account is in Luke 19:28-40.)

As Jesus was heading in Jerusalem in the final week before He was crucified, He instructed some of His disciples to go ahead of Him into a small village near or perhaps at Bethany. There they would find a small colt upon tied up which had never been sat on before by anyone else. They were to loose the colt and bring him to Jesus. And Jesus forewarned them that the owners would stop them to ask what they were doing. They were to simply tell them, "The Lord hath need of him."

With these instructions, the disciples headed off to the village. When they got there, everything transpired exactly as Jesus told them it would. They found the colt, loosed it and began to lead it away. The owners stopped them to ask what they were doing. The disciples told them, "The Lord hath need of him." Then, the very next words in scripture report, "And they brought him to Jesus."

After they did all this, the colt was then used to fulfill the prophecy of the Messiah recorded in Zechariah 9:9. Jesus rode into Jerusalem in His Triumphal Entry presenting Himself humbly as Israel's promised King. This was certainly an incredible and an important moment.

But, let's go back a moment to those unnamed owners. It seems like such a small thing they did in giving up their colt. But when they heard Jesus needed it, they let it go with no objection or hesitation. Perhaps they had met Jesus in one of His visits to Bethany. Perhaps they had even witnessed Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead in that region not too long before this. But, whatever their reasons were, they most certainly had a godly perspective about their earthly possessions.

This is a perspective we need to allow God's Spirit to develop within us. Sometimes we can become so earthly minded that we are of no heavenly good. Jesus calls us to not hold too tightly to material things. God is the One who gives us everything we possess, and He gives us what we have expressly for His eternal purposes. So, when the Lord has need of what you have, be ready to hand it over to His purposes. (And keep in mind that what God has planned to do with what you have is of much greater significance than whatever you have planned to do with it.)

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