LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional
JUNE 27 JQ#18-1 “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15)
365 Prayers to JESUS
Jesus, Your Grace is sufficient. Lord, let this journey that You have placed before me reflect a prayer prayed on June 27, 2004 where I prayed “Lord, help me make my head knowledge heart knowledge because I know what I should be doing but my heart keeps hanging on to the old nature, take me away from the old nature and clothe me as You promised with a new creature that I may ‘…go and sin no more…’ against You and Thy Kingdom.” Lord Jesus, we need Thee every hour! AMEN
The Jesus Questions
JUNE 27 JQ#18-1 “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15) Jesus is relentless in getting His Teachings across to us and He desires for us to look deep into our own lives and souls so that we can truly “understand” “Who” He really is and “Why” He took on flesh! When we think that we have come to a deep understanding, yet it is in reality still just a “surface” knowledge of His Grace, Jesus stops and makes us think on a level that always takes us “deeper still”! The disciples have experienced Jesus first hand in their daily lives as they have literally spent 24/7 with Him and seen Him accomplish miracle after miracle and Jesus has always pointed to “our Father in heaven” as the source of His Power so if anyone knew “who” Jesus really is, it should be the disciples that have seen Him calm the wind and the waves twice already and healed the multitudes every where He went. The disciples have seen Jesus take a few loaves and fishes and feed thousands and thousands just by breaking bread and praying to His Father to bless and to provide and God has been faithful and answered the prayers of Jesus. The disciples had just been given a great lesson on discernment when Jesus taught “beware the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees” as they were teaching doctrines of men and not of God commandments to men, and we read in Matthew’s gospel that, “When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man,am?” This question would make the disciples stop and answer Jesus from the literal viewpoint of what they had heard other men say about who they thought Jesus was but we just like the disciples will miss the lesson Jesus is about to teach and the question “Who do men say …I am?” (Matthew 16:13) is not a question Jesus asks His disciples to give Jesus knowledge or information for we know that Jesus “knows the heart of men” so by now the disciples should know that when Jesus asks a question He is about to take us “deeper still” and sure enough this question is a lead-in question that Jesus uses to get us to focus our attention on another Truth of God! This method of teaching is starting to reach His disciples and it is at this point of studying about Jesus that we too should pause and reflect on the person of Jesus and look not at what men say about Jesus but dig deep into our personal experiences and ponder what it is that we really “know” about Jesus and not just what we have “heard” what other men think about Jesus. Jesus is asking a question that will change your personal viewpoint for eternity and how you see Jesus will change from “I heard” to “I know” and we will find that what we think about Jesus is our reality of Jesus and don’t you think you know what is in your heart of hearts better than what men tell you should be in your heart? Think about this lead in question and then answer what I believe to be the most important answer in your eternal soul as answer Jesus face-to-face as He asks you this very,very personal question, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15)
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