Jesus continued to teach the disciples even thought He was turning toward Jerusalem. This daily devotional looks at how Jesus showed love to everyone and cared about our understanding.
Devotions in the Thoughts series
Asking about What We Don't Understand
“But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him” (Mk. 9: 32 ESV)
This verse saddened me. I get the fact that the disciples didn’t understand. We have to really be focused on God to gain understanding.
That is one reason why reading the Bible to just read the Bible doesn’t bring understanding. We have to study and meditate on it.
God’s ways are higher than ours, so we can bank on our understanding of it.
- “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD” (Isa. 55: 8 ESV)
- “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Prov. 3: 5: ESV)
There are just some things that we are never going to understand in this life. That isn’t what saddens me.
What tears my heart is that the disciples were afraid to ask. Jesus had begun to tell them that He was going to die on the cross and be resurrected in three days.
Oh, yeah. That was hard for them to wrap their minds around. It was 180 degrees from where their understanding was.
But Jesus was their Friend. It seemed like He was open to all questions. You know, no question is a dumb question if you don’t understand what you need to understand.
Maybe they got a better understanding as Jesus kept talking about it. Maybe it was that they weren’t going to understand until what He was telling them had happened.
I am glad Scriptures showed us how they struggled with salvation. It didn’t single any one or group out, so we can assume all of them were struggling with this.
It is okay for us to not understand everything about salvation. In fact, that is a key component of faith. “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb. 11: 1 NIV).
But we have to feel like we can ask Jesus what we need to get to the point we will give our lives to Him.
Jesus wants us to gain salvation. As long as we are sincerely coming to Him and will truly submit to Him, He will ask God to forgive us of our sins.
Father God. We know that when we ask in faith, we will receive. Help us to always understand that You want a relationship with us. We need not be afraid to ask of You in faith. Amen.
Working in His Name
“John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.’ But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me’” (Mk. 9:38-39 ESV)
We like to think that our beliefs are correct, and everyone else’s is wrong. That isn’t so.
There are some essential doctrines. What are those?
- Jesus is the Messiah come to pay the penalty for our sins by shedding His blood.
- He came to call all people to salvation.
- He could do this because He was sinless and divine.
- We have to believe in Him and repent of our sins.
- He called us to follow God’s laws and commandments as described in the Scriptures.
All who believe this and ask Jesus to be the Lord and Savior will be saved. It doesn’t matter what denomination they follow.
We aren’t following a church or other people. We are following Jesus.
God. We follow Your Plan of Salvation. Amen.
It's about Love
“And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing …’” (Mk. 10: 21 ESV)
The rich, young man was interested in eternal life. That was all he was interested in.
Jesus was interested in the man’s eternal life, but He was more interested in the condition of his soul. Was the man following Him?
Oh, the man had followed all of the commandments. But the law won’t save us.
Following Jesus will. He had already said, “… ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’” (Mk. 8: 34 ESV).
We have to put our faith and trust in Jesus and do His Will.
Father God. We praise You that You designed the Plan of Salvation to restore us to You. We thank Jesus that He agreed to be the sacrifice necessary for the Plan to work. We give our lives over to You so that we may become more like You. Amen.
Explaining the Hard Stuff
“… And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise’” (Mk. 10:32-34 ESV)
Jesus told the disciples point blank what was going to happen to Him. It wasn’t going to be pretty.
The priests and scribes were going to condemn Jesus to death. It didn’t matter that they legally couldn’t. They were going to do it anyway.
They were going to do all these things they to do criminals to Jesus — even though He wasn’t a criminal.
But something miraculous was going to happen. Jesus was going to rise from the dead.
Jesus had kept telling them that nothing was impossible with God. “But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’” (Mt. 19:26 ESV).
What the disciples needed at this point was faith. They had to believe what they couldn’t see.
They weren’t there yet, but Jesus didn’t give up on them.
He won’t give up on us, either, when He know we have it in us to follow Him.
Father God. We put our faith in You. We don’t have to see it to believe it is possible with You. Amen.
Having Faith
“And Jesus answered them, ‘Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours’” (Mk. 11:22-24 ESV)
Oh, yeah. We would like the part saying whatever we want, we just have to ask for. But that isn’t what Jesus was saying.
Jesus told us to have faith. Faith is believing without seeing.
The kicker is that it isn’t focusing on us or what we want. It is focusing on God and what He wants.
We have to pray in God’s Will and to expand His kingdom. Then He will supply our needs.
Father God. We focus so much on ourselves. Help us to always focus on You. Amen.
What do you think?
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