Matthew 10:34-39 Take up your cross and follow Jesus.
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: March 12, 2019, Matthew 10:34-39
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.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) Jesus had already warned that His disciples would be betrayed by family and friends. Then He had reassured them that they were loved by the Father, who would take care of them when persecution happened and that they were not to deny Jesus when they were persecuted, or Jesus would deny them before the Father. When Jesus said this, He was telling the disciples that their way to the Father was through their connection to Him. If He had been just a man, that would have sounded very arrogant and so do these verses here also when Jesus says that we are not worthy of Him if we are not willing to follow Him to death and deny family. However, He was more than a man; He was and is our Savior. He is God, our Creator. We are not worthy to be His creations if we break faith with Him. Barnes’ commentary says this is about who we love and that we need to love God supremely. “The meaning of this is clear. Christ must be loved supremely, or he is not loved at all. If we are not willing to give up all earthly possessions, and forsake all earthly friends, and if we do not obey him rather than all others, we have no true attachment to him.”
(Understanding the Text) Jesus warned the disciples that His presence would not result in peace on earth. Why? Because we are in a war, and even though the war is won, Satan is still fighting trying to destroy everyone and everything that God loves. When we side with Jesus, we are making ourselves targets. Then why would we choose problems over being ignored? Because the devil does not just ignore anyone. He makes life a misery for all humans. In the areas that he gains more power, he causes more misery. There is no happiness under his reign, only oppression and cruelty. Thus, there is no peace no matter which side we are on; however, with Jesus, there is the hope that someday this war will be finished and we will have peace, and also there is the assurance of His presence with us now to bring us inner peace even when the storms come. However, we cannot gain this blessing from friends and family. They will fail us. Only Jesus can bring this assurance, but if we relegate Jesus to second or third or last place, then we fail to grasp His peace. Guzik’s commentary points out that the devil’s greatest temptation for us is not the bad, but the good. “The greatest danger of idolatry comes not from what is bad, but from what is good – like love in family relationships. The greatest danger to the best comes from second best.”
This is one of those backwards principles of heaven that don’t make sense to our worldly logic. “The disciple lives in a paradox. He can only find life by losing it, and he can only live by dying. Resurrection life can only come after we have taken up our cross to follow Jesus (Guzik).” By denying our parents and children to place Jesus first in our hearts, we are able to love them more and give more of ourselves to them. By denying our lives in this world in favor of a life with Jesus, we are able to enjoy the life here more and experience it more fully without hurt and breaking and scarring that would otherwise accompany living here. By giving up our physical lives for Jesus, whether it is persecution or through sacrificing it for another person, we gain eternal life with Jesus. “Your ‘cross’ isn’t really your particular trial or trouble. The cross means one thing: death – death to self, but resurrection life unto God” (Guzik). The logic of the kingdom of heaven is that you have to first give something up to God, and He returns it better than it ever was, in a different form but better. This principle of losing our lives for Jesus in order to save them was repeated often by Jesus, so it was an important principle. “This paradox appears in four forms according to Allen (1) Mat_10:39 (2) Mar_8:35; Mat_16:25; Luk_9:24 (3) Luk_17:33 (4) Joh_12:25 ” (Robertson’s Word Pictures).
I like how Robertson’s Word Pictures talks about the sword. “A bold and dramatic climax. The aorist infinitive means a sudden hurling of the sword where peace was expected. Christ does bring peace, not as the world gives, but it is not the force of compromise with evil, but of conquest over wrong, over Satan, the triumph of the cross. Meanwhile there will be inevitably division in families, in communities, in states. It is no namby-pamby sentimentalism that Christ preaches, no peace at any price. The Cross is Christ’s answer to the devil’s offer of compromise in world dominion. For Christ the kingdom of God is virile righteousness, not mere emotionalism.”
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that I should not fear giving up anything for Jesus because He will return something much better. When I cling to my self-protection, I only hurt myself and do not allow Jesus to heal me. I pray to trust You so that You can heal me and fill me completely. Forgive my lack of faith and give me the trust that allows You into all parts of me and my life.