Matthew 19:13-15 Don’t push the children away.
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: May 27, 2019 Matthew 19:13-15
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 children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” And he laid his hands on them and went away.
(Revelation of God) Matthew seems to be grouping together the teachings that shocked people: no divorce, children are a priority, the rich are not favored by God more than the poor and have a difficult time getting into heaven, and people being giving wages equally regardless when they started working because of the employer’s promise. Many times, we don’t think about how shocking Jesus truly is even by today’s standards. These priorities of Jesus are minimized by many people who claim to value Christianity and the values of the Bible. Sometimes, I am not sure if they really know what God’s values are.
(Understanding the Text) Mothers were wanting Jesus to touch their children and pray over them as He did. I think that this may have been a common practice for rabbis to do. The disciples were the ones who organized the crowds so that each person had a chance to be healed and were not trampled by the crowd or kept away, but in the process, they were making choices about who had access to Jesus and keeping others away from Him. On this day, they made the wrong choice.
Jesus said that little children should have access to him and not to try to keep a little child away from Jesus. He said that the kingdom of heaven belonged to little children. In various places in the gospels, Jesus repeated that the beings who wished to dwell in heaven had to be like little children and the children’s angels always had access to the Father. In fact, Matthew records one of these cases in chapter 18 just before this, so if the chapters in Matthew are chronological here, the disciples had already received this instruction when they wanted to know about who was greatest in heaven. This was really just a reminder.
It says that Jesus laid hands on them and went away. Why does it record that He went away? It seems unnecessary to state unless it was just a description of Jesus’ actions, and it was unusual.
(Application / Prayer) My application to myself is that I need to be careful about who I judge worthy of help. I have a tendency to judge value by outward mannerisms, not so much clothes as attitudes and content of speaking and whether someone is well-kept. However, Jesus has tried to show me that my first impression judgments are not what He sees. I need to stop seeing the outside and let Jesus direct my actions. I need to be lovingly interested in everyone. God please help me to love because I do not love very good. Help me not to exclude anyone from You that You are drawing in. Instead, let me be a welcomer, not a gatekeeper.