Luke 9:43-48 Receive the Child and Receive 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: August 19, 2018 Luke 9:43-48
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 all were astonished at the majesty of God. But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.” But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying. An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”
(Understanding the Text) Here is more evidence that there was still some glory clinging to Jesus when it says that they were astonished at the majesty of God. This may have been why the scribes did not dare argue with Jesus as they had been arguing with the disciples and as they had argued with Jesus on other occasions. Jesus simply looked different like He had power.
Jesus knew that seeing Him this way was giving the disciples the wrong idea of what would soon happen. Seeing the scribes silenced and Jesus able to heal what they had not, the disciples were dreaming of power and control. They were imagining Jesus setting up a kingdom that they would help run. They did not look at themselves and inquire why Jesus would choose non-administrative, non-warriors like them to achieve and run that kingdom. They ignored their own lack of experience and qualifications. When Judas looked at his fellow disciples, he realized that he had more skills and ambition than any of them and that once the kingdom was in place, his chances of passing them all up were good.
(Revelation of God) Jesus knew about these dreams and tried to redirect the disciples’ focus toward heaven and not earth. He basically said, “Get it through your thick heads” when he said “Let these words sink into your ears” He was saying “I am about to be arrested and killed,” but Jesus’ words fell on deaf ears.
(Understanding the Text) On the way, the disciples started discussing what they thought was going to happen. They all agreed that a kingdom of Israel would be set up to rule the world. They did not agree on the pecking order in this kingdom and started arguing over who would be their leader. In their pursuit of ambition and power, they were negating the very force that Jesus had tried to create in them: brotherly love. Resentment and jealousy were arising among them as some silently fumed at others. Jesus knew what was going on and tried to stop it by calling a child to Him and proceeded to inform them that greatness was not ruling kingdoms. Greatness was dealing with small things. Jesus told them that to be His representative they needed to be willing to do seemingly small unimportant duties. Jesus told them that He expected them to greet children in His name, not diplomats and rulers. He told them that to represent Him to unimportant people was to please not only Him, but also the Father.
Then Jesus told them that the one who was least, the one who served, the low man on the totem pole, the one stuck with the rotten duties, that one was the greatest. I don’t think they paid attention to the words.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that I am only as useful to Jesus as I am humble. When my ego is large or I expect to serve in certain ways, I will not open my ears to hear Jesus asking me to do the small things or the unimportant jobs. I will not value the work that Jesus values. If I am using worldly or selfish measures of success, I will not be open to Jesus calling me to do the necessary jobs that will ensure the salvation of more of His children. I pray that I will be useable and humble and listen to Your voice telling me what to do. I pray to be a blessing to my church, my circle of people who know me, and to people in my city who don’t know me. I pray that you will use me to reach the people that You want to reach. I pray that my ego will not make me harm your message of love. I long to be effective for You but fear that I am simply spinning my wheels. I want to feel that I am part of Your plans. I pray to be useful to You.