Matthew 9:14-17 Unshrunk Cloth
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 28, 2019, Matthew 9:14-17
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.
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
(Understanding the Text) Fasting is a mystery to me. When I don’t eat, I cannot think. However, fasting is supposed to clear people’s minds to bring them closer to God. In this passage, Jesus does not seem to say that about fasting. Instead, Jesus associates fasting with mourning. However, I do not understand the purpose that fasting has in mourning, except that people become so sad that food does not interest them. In one way, it makes sense that if fasting is about better communication with God, there would have been no reason to fast when God is right there communicating with them, but that brings me back to my original confusion about how fasting can be an advantage in clearing the mind for communication when it just confuses and clouds my mind. I guess I’ll just keep my same old idea that my physiological reaction is different from most people.
I used to not understand the metaphors that Jesus gave next. Then, I realized that Jesus was telling John’s disciples that they were still acting in the old ways and a New Way had come. Jesus was teaching a new way of living and trying to continue in the old ways of living while adopting the new way would create a mismatched mess that ultimately would tear itself to pieces. Jesus was saying that the new way had to stand on its own without all the old traditions and values that had grown up around the old way.
(Revelation of God) I think we have done the same thing with our culture and the Biblical way of life. We try to make a mismatched combination of culture and Jesus, and it does not work. That is what I see in a lot of churches and in a lot of individual Christian’s lives. There is no compromise with God. He demands everything from us while giving us everything in return. For Him, it is total commitment, not halfway compromises.
(Application) My application for myself is that I need to totally commit myself to Jesus jettisoning anything from my culture that holds me back. My patriotism, my family allegiance, my work, my personal past times must all be modified to fit into Jesus’ place in my life rather than trying to fit Jesus as one among these many parts of me. Jesus must have all of me and these other parts only have a place as they align and fit in with Jesus. It’s the only way to live a successful life. Anything else will tear me apart and make me a prisoner of present life.
(Prayer) Cleanse me from anything that will separate me from You. Make me new and purify me from worldly ideas and allegiances that corrupt and pull me away from Your ways.