Matthew 8:23-27 Wind and Waves
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: February 24, 2019, Matthew 8:23-27
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.
And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
(Revelation of God) Jesus was God in a man’s body. He had to sleep at times. His body needed to recover and rest after all His exertions. He had been surrounded by crowds who He had taught and healed. The boat was the one place where He could rest and He was so exhausted that the tossing of the boat and the sound of the storm did not wake Him. Imagine, God experiencing exhaustion so that He could not wake up from a deep sleep. At the same time, Jesus had the confidence of being God and feared nothing that could merely physically harm the body. His confidence in His connection to His Father was complete. Thus, when He was woken up and saw the situation, He saw the disciples’ fear and questioned it. It was illogical to fear when they had God with them. He simply got up, looked at the sky and told the wind and sea to settle down. They did.
In theory, we know that God has the power to do anything we can imagine. We have seen and read about His workings both great and small. We know that God has made the sun stand still, a donkey talk, a great army kill each other in confusion, and calmed the winds and the waves with a word. We know that Jesus and the prophets and the disciples raised people from the dead, healed leprosy, healed from a distance without ever seeing the patient, made people born with a physical problem whole, and cast out demons. We know that God can work subtly placing the right people at the right time in the right place. We know that God knows the end from the beginning. We KNOW, and yet we continually doubt and are shocked when God performs a miracle.
(Understanding the Text / Application) Jesus’ total trust in the Father was in marked contrast to the disciples’ fear and disbelief. They trusted that Jesus could save them, but they did not have faith that the Father would save them. I am like that. It’s not that I don’t know that Jesus can do anything. He could suddenly tomorrow have a revival in my city, and the church could be overflowing with new converts, as well as older experienced SDA Christians who have moved into the area just to handle the situation. It’s not that I don’t believe that God couldn’t do that; it’s that I have no faith that He would do that or even bring in enough to fill the church. My faith is small when it comes to trusting in God’s desire to help me while it’s not small in God’s ability to help me. Maybe, I should be watching more of those “Ask and it will be given sermons” rather than just focusing on communication in prayer, but I don’t think so. There is something wrong with most of those sermons that I can’t put my finger on except for the selfishness of some of the people’s requests and the lack of reality that I see in their lives compared to the grandiose answers they point to. On the other hand, I know that I am not demonstrating faith in God’s desire to save the people of my city or in God’s desire to grow the church here, or to grow each member spiritually, so I am missing something also.
(Prayer) I pray that You will give me the confidence to trust You to want to give me good things. I pray that I will trust You to work great miracles as well as small. I know you can, yet I don’t trust You to do it. I know that You can transform the worst people into Your devoted followers, yet I don’t trust You to transform people I know into different people. I don’t trust others to love You and want to follow You. I have trust issues that I need You to help me with. I’m sorry that I don’t trust in Your love and desire to cherish me. My life experiences and my own lack of love have made me unfaithful to You. Change me, I pray.