September 2025

The following is a possible framework for the Witnessing of the Word. It can be personalised or altered: its purpose is to serve as an example of how this Saying might be used primarily in the context of a Prayer Group, but it may be used by individuals too. It is not intended to be definitive.  In the context of a group: the periods of silence should be appropriate for your group - probably not less than 5 minutes, or more than 15 minutes.

Saying for the month: ‘Take nothing for the journey’ Luke 9.3 (NIV)

To begin the exercise, first spend a short while in relaxation and preparing to be still; you may want to relax your way through your muscles or you may find it helpful to become aware of the sounds around you and then put them aside as you offer this time of prayer to God.

Say this introductory invitation to prayer, then keep a further minute or two of silence:  ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11.28).

Introduction to the first silence - a preparation for listening with the mind:

‘Take nothing for the journey’

This Saying of Jesus comes in the account of the commissioning of the apostles, a significant event which is related in greater detail in Matthew 9.35-10.42. In Matthew’s account, the twelve apostles are named, and the charge placed upon them is detailed: the instructions for the journey and the hazards they will face are plainly laid out. Jesus instructs them on how they are to face their likely persecutors, and assures them of the care and support that will come from the Father, saying that He too will have his own share of the perils and dangers of the task, as well as of the rewards.

Here in Luke, the account is brief, sandwiched between the relating of two miracles. The first is the personal and intimate episode of the raising of the twelve year old daughter of Jairus, together with the healing of the woman with the flow of blood. The second, by contrast, is the miracle that perhaps receives the most attention of all Jesus’s works – maybe because of the sheer numbers that were involved, or because of the publicity that it would have received: the feeding of the multitude. Related in all four Gospels, it is an event which inevitably draws Jesus and His activities to the attention of the authorities, with all the consequences that follow.

Of the commissioning of the apostles, Martin Tunnicliffe writes:

‘So, the preparations are complete and they are ready to go. Jesus has called them and now empowers them with His authority, to do ... what? In practice it was to counter and challenge the phobias and inadequacies and low expectations of the time, to heal the sick, to demonstrate their own “courage to believe”, and stand publicly wherever they arrive and do it in the name of Jesus their Lord and by His example. They are to do it with sincerity and simplicity, travelling light, knowing what is the Kingdom of God in the present moment’.

Jesus says to the disciples then, ‘Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt’.  He wants the disciples to learn to trust that He can provide for and protect them even when He is not with them.

So we spend time taking this Saying into our minds – seeking to understand what Jesus was trying to communicate to His hearers, what His purpose might have been, what the twelve might have felt about what lay ahead on their missionary travels. We listen to the words as they were first spoken …

‘Take nothing for the journey’.

A time is now kept for silence of the mind – perhaps between 5 and 15 minutes.  The silence concludes with a short thanksgiving, and/or feel free to repeat the Saying.

The first silence ends with the words: Father, we thank you for the gift of your Word.

Introduction to the second silence - a preparation for listening with the heart:

‘Take nothing for the journey’.

We Christians are also engaged in a journey of faith. We imagine the disciples being sent out on their own, away from the intensive atmosphere that surrounded Jesus as He preached, taught, healed and met the demands of all the people that must have pressed in on Him. They would probably have felt as if they had been cast adrift, alone in what might well have been a hostile environment. Sometimes our own world bears resemblance to that, and it can be a hard task to keep going out into the unknown with energy and enthusiasm.

Jesus did not want the disciples to be concerned about physical preparations and needs. He wanted them to focus on the job they had been given to do. The mission was the important thing, but He knew that their human nature would lead them to worry about the details of their day-to-day requirements. Some of us have real concerns about providing for our own needs and the needs of others, and anxiety about the future and how to manage is a reality for many.

For the disciples, this was to be a test of their faith in God as their provider. If they sought God’s Kingdom first and foremost, their real needs would, this Saying implies, be provided for. It would be impossible for them to trust in their own resources because they simply had none. Our own faith can be tested at times of trial. Our own faith can be offered simply, daily, in one small act of trust in God at a time.

We too have jobs to do to further the Kingdom. They may be small and insignificant day-to-day tasks rather than vast missionary journeys into the wider world, but they are nonetheless important. In our own spheres of operation and influence we can make a huge difference, amongst family, friends, neighbours. We don’t have ostentatiously to proclaim our Christian credentials, and in fact it is usually more effective if we don’t, but people will know from where we draw our strength.

In these miracles and in others like them, Jesus allowed God’s creative and healing power to flo through Him. We are invited to invoke the same healing, creative power in all that we do, in everything that flows from our life of worship and prayer. We know that this strength is nurtured by our church community, our prayer groups and our own private study and prayer, and by acknowledging that ‘we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us’ (2 Cor 4.7).

In our second silence we draw these words into our hearts, bringing their meaning to life in the context of our own lives …

‘Take nothing for the journey’. 

A time is now kept for silence of the heart – perhaps between 5 and 15 minutes.

The second silence ends with the words: Father, we thank you that your Word is alive and within us.

Introduction to the time of intercession – taking God’s word outwards into the world.

Say the name of a person or a group of people, and after a short pause, repeat the saying. For example:

‘Alison … ‘Take nothing for the journey’.

As we allow the word to speak through us, we might direct Jesus’s word towards

·    those embarking on a time of trial

·    those suffering hurt and with a need to forgive

·    all refugees and those escaping from conflict

·    people in a position of power making decisions on behalf of others

·    peacemakers

·    those we know who are sick, especially the terminally ill

Conclude this time of intercession with words of thanksgiving: Father, we thank you that your Word has gone out through us to those for whom we pray.

The Conclusion

Feel free to use the Fellowship Prayer (below) or another closing prayer to conclude your time of contemplative prayer:

Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for all your unsearchable riches which pour forth from you as light from the sun, in boundless profusion and generosity, whether received, ignored or rejected. And now we offer to you, in so far as we are able, as an emptiness to be filled with your divine fullness, ourselves, our souls and bodies; all that we are, all that we have and all that we do. Amen

You may wish to say the Grace together before departing.