Luke 19:31 And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? Thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.
God’s Purpose For Me
If you’re anything like me, you like to attach as much significance and purpose to everything you do as you possibly can. Sometimes, that’s difficult because most of our days are defined by tasks like preparing meals, preparing a report, or finishing your homework. Sometimes it’s hard to see God’s grand scheme for what I’m doing right now. We have the need to recognize a grand purpose and a great God at play in the world. But what if there are things that must be done or that God asks of us which are hard to attach to some greater significance?
I think this scenario has been illustrated for us in Luke 19. Jesus sent a couple of His disciples into the village ahead of Him and said, “Ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never a man sat: loose him, and bring him hither.” Now, if you’d been one of Jesus’ disciples, what would be your first question? Wouldn’t you at least wonder why?
Verse 31 says, “And if any man ask you, Why do you loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.” The disciples didn’t know what was going on here, and I don’t know what the owner of this colt must have thought. The Bible tells us that the disciples did just as Jesus said. They were loosing the colt and the owners said to them “Why loose ye the colt? And they said, The Lord hath need of him.”
If you read the rest of the chapter, you get the sense that there was something grand going on. There were thousands of people involved, but I don’t know how many of them actually understood their part. There were some that praised the Lord, and some that sneered at Him. There were some that had a colt and gave it away, and some that took the colt for the Lord Jesus. I’m not sure any of them comprehended God’s grand plan for history, but there was one.
The takeaway from this is that there’s a big difference between having no purpose and having no understanding of what that purpose is. It’s possible to be involved in a greater purpose but not comprehend it. Now I would rather be mindful of what God is doing in any given moment or task, but what about those times when there are things that must be done simply because I know that it’s the right thing right now?
This is where I need to trust and obey God even though I cannot see the grand purpose. I don’t need to understand God’s grand purpose for the way He’s leading me in order to know that there is one. Trust God, do what you should, and if you do, even the small issues of life may have far grander significance than you could possibly know this day.