²⁴ After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

²⁵ “Yes, he does,” he replied.

When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”

²⁶ “From others,” Peter answered.

“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. ²⁷ “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

Dear God, the first thing I thought when I heard this story was, “Wow, Jesus is really feeling it now.” What I mean by that is that, after the transfiguration he is seemingly really feeling how much power he really has. I like how he addresses Peter’s issue on taxes before Peter even says anything. Then he tells Peter where to find some gold, and it is in a most unlikely place. It doesn’t say what Peter found when he caught the fish, but I would venture to say that they wouldn’t have told the story if it didn’t work out.

I am thinking there is a lot of power that you have available to me, as your child, that I don’t even come close to scratching the surface of. There is power available for all of the challenges that I see around me. I just need to change my paradigm of what I expect from you. I have my nice little safe Christian version of what I expect from you, and I rarely really tap into your power. And I have to tell you, when I do I am always blown away by what you do.

Father, I want to spend this day focusing on a few issues that are in my life. I want to tap your power in these areas. One is our big issue at work. The other is my mother’s health. I have concerns about me as a parent. I have concerns about me as a husband. I also know we have some patients at work that really need your intervention. And there is my wife’s faith journey. I will dedicate this day to lifting all of these issues up to you. I need your power. I need you to move. And I want to be able to look at all of these things and see how you moved.