LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional
APRIL 23
365 Prayers to JESUS
Jesus, Lord, my God, my Redeemer Praise, Glory, and Honor to the Only Begotten of the Father, the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the earth! O Blessed Thought — THOU ART MINE!! Jesus, the Name above all names, have mercy on this sinner saved by Your Grace, guide me each day as I look for Your Daily Manna to “reign” down from Heaven for my daily “spiritual” bread!
The Jesus Questions
JQ#11 — “What are your spiritual expectations?” Matthew 11:7. The writer of the Gospel of Matthew does a great job of moving from one Jesus Question to the other by keeping us up to date with the Ministry of Jesus as the writes comments on what he observes as logical transitions from one lesson to the next; for example, Matthew starts chapter 11 with “Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.” (Matthew 11:1) Recall that JQ#10 was “What is your spiritual value?” (Matthew 10:29). Jesus asked by JQ#10 by referring to “two sparrows [being] sold for a copper coin” in the middle of equipping His twelve disciples as we read in Matthew 10:1 “…[Jesus] gave them power..” (Matthew 10:1) before sending them out “…as sheep in the midst of wolves…” (Matthew 10:16) and then Jesus assured His disciples of their “spiritual value” in verses Matthew 10:30 -42 where Jesus states “…[My disciples] shall by no means lose [their] reward!” which is essentially telling the disciples they will never lose their “spiritual value”! Now Jesus transitions to His next lesson/question as He asks JQ#11: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?” (Matthew 11:7) There is no doubt that the lesson Jesus is going to teach is about our “spiritual expectations” and the lesson is meant for all generations; because in verses 1-6 preceding the question, Jesus refers to Himself as the “Coming One” to the disciples of John the Baptist [John’s mission was] to point to “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) and as soon as Jesus explained to John’s disciples why He declares Himself the “Coming One” that Matthew 11:7 states: “And as [the disciples of John the Baptist] departed [with the revelation that Jesus is the Coming One], Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John [the Baptist]…” (Matthew 11:7A) “What did you go into the wilderness to see?” as Jesus introduces the next lesson/question JQ#11: “What are your spiritual expectations?” (Matthew 11:7b). Therefore Jesus establishes the fact that He is moving from equipping the disciples and teaching about our “Eternal Spiritual Value” in JQ#10 in Matthew Chapter 10 to a new lesson in Matthew Chapter 11 about our “Spiritual Expectations” as He establishes clearly the fact that Jesus IS THE COMING ONE and we should evaluate our individual expectations of who we believe is “the Coming One” and what do we “expect” from our “Messiah”? Jesus reveals Himself as the “Coming One” first to the disciples of John because they were “expecting” the Messiah and John the Baptist had borne “witness of Him and cried out saying, ‘This is He’ [the Messiah]…”. (John 1:15) John the Baptist said his personal mission was to “Make straight the way of the Lord” (John 1:23) and then as John the Baptist first laid eyes on Jesus, John made his famous declaration “Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1:29) There is no room for doubt, in the JQ#11 question Jesus is teaching that He IS the Messiah and we should evaluate our expectations of Him! Did you ever stop to consider your personal “spiritual expectation” of Jesus Christ?
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