Matthew 20:17-19 Foretelling Death and Life
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: June 1, 2019 Matthew 20:17-19
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 as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) The heading of this section in the Bible says that this is the third time that Jesus foretells His death. In this case, Jesus was very specific about what would happen. He had foreknowledge of everything that would happen to Him, except for how unbearable it would be to be separated from His Father. He knew that He would first go before the religious leaders of Israel for trial and condemnation and that they would give Him to the Romans. In the hands of the Romans, He would be mocked, whipped and crucified. He would die and on the third day come back to life. Jesus knew all of these details ahead of time and tried to tell the twelve. They thought that He was just thinking negatively or trying to give them a test of faith. Matthew heard Jesus say these words, but he was one of the ones who fled and hid and didn’t believe ahead of time.
(Application) My application for myself is that God tries to comfort me by telling me what will happen, but I will not be comforted unless I believe Him. Also, I have to listen to the whole that He is telling me. If I just listen to the first part there is no comfort with faith. I can believe in the crucifixion and be depressed. It’s only when I add the resurrection to the story that there is hope. Dark days are coming . . . Dark days are here . . . But Jesus has promised that He will come and take us with Him and there will be no more death, crying, and pain. A time of hope will come to us, but we must believe the promise in the dark days.
(Revelation of God / Prayer) God can only give us as much as we are ready for. He tries to give more, but our lack of faith stops Him from being able to do more. He can only put into us as much as we are open to receive. He has to work on transforming us and part of that work is opening us up to be ready to receive more. I pray to be open to You and to receive what You wish to give me. I think our inability to focus might also be a problem that He has to solve.