Monday, May 23, 2011

Daily Gospel Devotional: May 23

Matthew 17:14-18 / Mark 9:14-27 / Luke 9:37-42…

Help our unbelief…

Peter, James, and John had been on a mountain where they saw Jesus in His glorified state. They also saw Moses and Elijah, and they heard the audible voice of God from above as confirmation. It was a wonderful experience, but as soon as they come down the mountain to meet the other disciples, they walk right into trouble.

The other disciples were being questioned by the scribes about why they could not cast out a demon from a boy. There are many people that need help, but we are often powerless to help them, it seems. Yet it is not that we are helpless to help others; it is that we look to our own power, instead of reaching out in faith to God before we reach out to help others.

Jesus is not saying that whatever we want we can have if we just believe. He was delivering a promise to this particular man. Jesus is saying that the healing of the son is God’s will and that He had the power to do it. What the man needed was faith in that. Our faith should always be based on the clear teaching of the Word of God. If God promises something, we can believe He will do it if we ask by faith (1 John 5:14-15). However, we must learn to rightly interpret the Bible (2 Timothy 2:15), so that we don’t try and claim promises that are not really there for us.

Sometimes it isn’t that we don’t believe in God, it is that we don’t believe that we need to study. Great experiences are wonderful but we must come down from the mountain and dive into the Scriptures (2 Peter 1:17-19). Our mountaintop doesn’t exclude us from our study desk.

4 comments:

Even So... said...

In the course of one year we will read
• Every Verse
• Every Passage
• Every Gospel

We welcome your comments. We are not looking to be copying and pasting previous material...we are coming at this with a fresh look, each day, and going with whatever we see. We can send you a copy of the reading schedule (primesoul@hotmail.com). You can check www.voiceofvision.org for each day’s reading, or go to www.voiceofvision.blogspot.com to leave a comment. God bless you as you join in the walk with us...

This Daily Gospel Devotional goes out each day to many people by email...if you want to be a part of receiving it in your email each day, contact me: primesoul@hotmail.com

I receive many emails in response to these devotionals, but most are not published on the blog, and many are about private matters. I am grateful that these are reaching so many people, and touching lives. Glory to God!

Anonymous said...

Our mountaintop doesn’t exclude us from our study desk.

Duuuuuuuude!

MrsEvenSo... said...

However, we must learn to rightly interpret the Bible , so that we don’t try and claim promises that are not really there for us.

Amen. Lord help us.

Even So... said...

Indeed, Mr. Camping...