LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional
APRIL 24
365 Prayers to JESUS
Jesus, Lord I pray for the Holy Spirit to consume all my desires, that daily I will take up my cross and follow hard after Jesus. Lord, there is nothing good in me except for Your Spirit so Lord I pray as did John, let me decrease that You may increase. Jesus as You lead I will follow, as You command I will obey, and as You live, so will I live that others may see You in me and come to know You as Savior. Forgive me when I fall short of Your Glory for it is the flesh failing in me and I pray to be strengthened by Your Spirit that I may endure to the end and my spirit will join Your and the Father’s Spirit that we may be One as You have declared!
The Jesus Questions
JQ#11 — “What are your spiritual expectations?” Matthew 11:7. The actual question Jesus asked was to the multitudes that had heard Jesus answer John’s disciples question inquiring if Jesus was the “Coming One”? John the Baptist had been preaching about the Messiah in the wilderness probably to this same multitude that was now following Jesus because the things Jesus had been doing could only have been done by the “Anointing Power of God”. Jesus answered their question with: “Go tell John the things you see and hear.” (Matthew 11:4) Then Jesus listed the things that He had been doing in the Father’s Name for the kingdom’s sake, preaching, healing, and forgiving sins as Jesus listed things they had seen Him do and the message He had been preaching to them: “The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” Only the Son of God, the Messiah could do these things that Jesus had been doing so Jesus is saying, I am the Son of God, the Messiah, the Anointed One. The things Jesus had been doing proved He was the Messiah! Jesus gave the disciples of John a very serious answer because they had asked a serious question to Him that revealed that they were “expecting” the Messiah when they asked Jesus pointedly: “Are you the Coming One, or do we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3) As soon as Jesus gave the proof that He was indeed the Messiah we read that He sent them with an affirmative message to give John the Baptist and “As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John…” (Matthew 11:7a) which the reader today can paraphrase as “As they left to give John the Baptist the message that Jesus was the Messiah, that Jesus turned to the multitudes and started teaching them.” Jesus always is teaching. Jesus is God and knows all things so when He wants to teach a specific lesson Jesus often introduces the subject and then asks a simple question that focuses our attention on a specific “Truth of God”. In this case Jesus states without a doubt that He is the Messiah and then Jesus asks the multitudes to consider their own “spiritual expectations” of Him with a series of questions in quick succession: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those wearing soft clothing are in king’s houses. But what did you go out to see?” (Matthew 11:7-9) Jesus was definitely referring to John the Baptist who had been preaching about out in the wilderness, not in the synagogues, about the coming Messiah and the need for the people to “repent” and now Jesus immediately questions the multitudes about their “spiritual expectations” of the Messiah and questions what they expect to see the Messiah do in their personal lives? That is a good question for us to ask ourselves, what are our “spiritual expectations” of Jesus and His Church?
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