Matthew 5:13-16 Salt
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: January 28, 2019, Matthew 5:13-16
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
(Understanding the Text) When the blessings are at work in us, we become agents of change in society. We are not activists or demonstrators. Instead, the righteousness that Jesus is working out in us spreads its influence to others and causes a change in their lives. The many small and some great changes that happen permeate the society that we are in and act as a flavoring in all of the society. If there is no righteousness, we are useless in our society. If we simply spout moralities, but do not uplift Jesus, we are deadweight and of no value to those around us.
We are not to hide our relationship with Jesus where no one can see it. Instead, we are to interact with others letting them see the workings of the Spirit in us. Although we do many of our works in secret, eventually the knowledge of those works will come out. When it does, it is important that people know why we are performing righteous acts. They need to know that it is for the love of Jesus that we do things so that the people will glorify God and not us.
(Revelation of God) The point of being salt and light is that when people see us, they look beyond us to God and glorify Him. If our works point to ourselves alone, then we are shining the wrong light. The light inside of us that shines should be Jesus, not our own tiny light. The element that gives us saltiness is Jesus living in us. When God lives in us, the brightness of His glory is so powerful that it cannot be hidden. We are His temple, and we need to remember that we are not the star attraction. He is. This is important because we cannot do anything that will cause others to rise above the swamp of this world. We can only point them to God. He is the One who can lift them up. I guess we are the city on the hill because He places us higher and higher. He places us on a stand for all to see. We must always remember that it is about God’s light, not anything that we can generate on our own.
(Application / Prayer) I guess this is like my mom. You don’t see a lot of what she has done in grand and obvious ways, yet everyone she has touched has felt her influence and been uplifted a little each time. The only difference is that very few glorify God because of her actions. Instead, we glorify her. So, I guess I want to be like her, except that I want people to understand that the reason I perform acts of righteousness is because of Jesus and not because I’m simply a nice person. I pray that I do not lose my savor and that the light that I shine always comes from Jesus and not my own selfish self. I pray that when people’s attention is caught by my little light that they will look beyond me to the greater brightness of heaven.