Lord, I pray that all I do as a man, husband, father, son, brother, and worker, in this day which you have given me glorifies you. Thank you for your mercies that begin this next 24 (Lam 3:22-23). Grant me the foresight and wisdom (over 200 verses) to seek Your kingdom first, and Your righteousness and I praise You and thank you for adding all things to me that are needed this day (Matt 6:26, 31-33, 2 Cor 9:8). Create in me the desire to remind myself of Deuteronomy 6:5 that I am to love you with my heart, soul, and might (Matt 22:37).

Have you ever tried to apply something you didn’t understand? Have you ever evaluated or analyzed a situation and made a decision on how to handle it? Has that decision, later in life, come back to cause you a problem when you found out you didn’t have all the information you needed? Much of this occurs because we do not know what we do not know. This is the gap in modern discipleship! We get into situations where we are trying to apply, analyze, evaluate, and possibly create without ever getting the fullness of what we need to remember and understand in the first place! Jesus did not teach in this manner and I do not believe He expects us to follow a different path than Him as we become disciples and make disciples.

Ipsos Research conducted a study in 2022 in which they found, 76% of Americans affirm that Jesus was a historical figure. Even 50% of the unchurched agree. However, when the unchurched were asked to select words they associate with Christians they chose hypocritical (55%), judgmental (54%), and self-righteous (50%) (Jesus in America Study, Ipsos Research, 2022). No one said, “disciple”.