Category: Daily Devotionals

Matthew continues recording the interaction of Jesus with the Pharisees  and teachers of  the law from Jerusalem. They ask, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’”” 

Jesus’ response is harsh. But one must think of God’s viewpoint: When God created humankind He was fulfilling His stated intention, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule…” The pluralism of that intention (the use of “us” and “our”) demonstrates not only that the members of the Godhead were all involved, but that God intended those He made in His image to also exist within relationship. As God exists in intimate relationship between Father, Son and Spirit, so part of our inherent nature is our identity within family. 

We see this again in the actual creation account; God’s first blessing on Adam is the blessing of marriage. His first instruction post-blessing is to increase in number. God’s plan for us meant that humankind must know – even from our earliest days – the priority, intimacy and boundaries of family. That starts with understanding and honouring the role of our physical creators. It was to this very point that He said, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” Honouring God starts with honouring those He made like Him, and that starts with honouring our parents, who made us.

Moreover, God’s instruction to honour our parents wasn’t a suggestion, but a command. To this end He also laid out the drastic consequence of dishonouring our parents, “Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.” Dishonouring our parents is a serious crime, for it mirrors the treason of dishonouring God our Father. 

This background in mind, one can almost feel Jesus’ intense displeasure at the virtually insane hypocrisy the teachers of Israel had. For they accused the Son of breaking with human tradition, while at the same time committing and teaching treason against God on account of tradition. 

Worse, for them to tell people to disregard one of the commandments was effectively to rank themselves above God Most High, for they were deciding that their own tradition outranked God’s explicit command. The astonishing thing in reading Matthew’s account of this interaction is not Jesus’ particularly sharp rebuke, but His restraint!

Love of God is a work on which love of neighbor depends.

Andrew Karlstadt

APPLICATION: Intentionality

The Lord’s commands are to be taken most seriously. Does anything need to change in how you apply them to your life?

Almost every part of our culture is tradition, because the very definition of   tradition is the transmission from generation to generation of a widely accepted way of behaving or doing something that is specific to a particular society, place, or time. The same can be said of the church. Every church and every denomination also has traditions. Cultures overlap, meaning that you might have the culture and traditions of a Canadian, but you also have the culture and traditions of your particular denomination and church, your sports club and your family line. 

Like culture, traditions are rich with meaning, and different people within the culture attach different levels of importance to those meanings. For some, the fact that hymns are played on the organ is a deeply meaningful fact. For others, the fact that hymns are played is far more important than what they are played on. But for both, that hymns are played is an important tradition. 

But while tradition may be important to us as individuals and a key part of our shared culture, it must not supplant what God has commanded. Jesus once challenged the Jewish authorities on this very point, “Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?”

Jesus’ question conveys His deep displeasure. For Jesus, it is obvious that God’s commands are in a completely different category than man’s tradition. That is because tradition by its very nature is not mandatory. It cannot be mandatory to all people, because only some people created them. God’s commands are mandatory to us as people because He created all of us. So it is a grave misjudgment to put our tradition – whatever its form and whatever the subject – above God’s specific and written direction.

As a function of fact and rational thinking, that is much easier to agree to than to actually practice. The practice of putting God’s commands first obligates us to regulate the deeply personal meaning of our tradition; Our feelings must not have priority above spiritual truth. As rational beings, we get that. As emotional beings, we struggle with it. 

Just how much of a struggle that can be is revealed to us every time our church changes its music style!

The command of the Lord is, “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs,” and while definition of “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” leaves a lot of room for interpretation, the intent is clear. Our worship must lift up the Name of Christ and edify those who participate in it. If it truly does that objectively, it fulfills God’s command. If it does not, no matter how much we enjoy it or how long we’ve been enjoying it, it is at best mere tradition; meaningful to us, but not to all. Subsequently, as new people come into our church and older ones leave, it is inevitable that much of our shared tradition slowly decays into personal spiritual baggage – things that are unhelpful in leading the next generation into deeper relationship with God.

We …who confess this doctrine [of the inerrancy of Scripture] often deny it in life by failing to bring our thoughts and deeds, our traditions and habits, into true subjection to the divine Word.

R.C. Sproul

APPLICATION: Intentionality

To love tradition is not error. To love tradition above truth is error. What do you love? 

In our culture, it is considered appropriate to wash your hands prior to eating. Everyone knows that you pick up a multitude of microbes everytime you touch an unclean surface, and that those microbes can and will be subsequently transferred to your food (or anything else you touch) if your hands are not cleaned. Hand washing before eating was also the tradition of the Pharisees in Jesus’ time. 

But Jesus didn’t always practice that. Matthew notes that “Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”” 

While handwashing was a tradition (according to those who came to meet Jesus), it was not Scriptural. The Scripture only spoke about hand washing in regard to uncleanness in Leviticus 15. In that case, the hand washing was prescribed for someone who was unclean through bodily discharge, and who spread their uncleanness via touching others prior to washing. Of course, Jesus knew that, because He knew the Scripture forward and backwards. So He would be able to quickly discern that this wasn’t really an argument about what was clean and what was unclean. This – along with the fact that the people accusing Him were from Jerusalem – meant that this was a much larger argument. 

As one commentator noted, “For some time, Jesus had attracted a following from regions far and near, including Jerusalem. But this was the first time Matthew specifically recorded a confrontation between Jesus and any of the religious leaders from Jerusalem—the spiritual capital of Israel and the authoritative center of Judaism. It is possible that some of the religious leaders in previous encounters had been from Jerusalem, but this was the first time Matthew made specific mention of them and where they were from. Many of Jesus’ previous conflicts had probably been with local synagogue leaders in the various cities he had visited. His notoriety and the Pharisees’ frustration with him had grown to the point that Jesus’ opponents were now calling in the “big guns.””

Those “big guns” had chosen to begin their confrontation with Jesus on a very small issue. Perhaps they wanted to demonstrate that Jesus was off in the small things regarding the law, so should not be trusted with the bigger things of the law either. But while your average Rabbi might fall into such a trap, Jesus is not your average Rabbi.  Jesus not only knows the Scripture, He knows how to listen to the Father, and regularly spent time in dialogue with Him via prayer. Recall His own witness of this in John 12, “I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.” 

Jesus’ practice of knowing the Word and speaking to the Father meant that He would not fall into a trap of debating minor traditions when God’s glory is at stake. 

Knowing the Word and a habit of prayer are key to keeping our life purpose on track too! 

[The Lord] is telling us that if we want to be taught and led by God, we must get into the habit of looking to him regularly.

James Montgomery Boice

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Only you, your journal and the Lord truly know where your primary “go-to resource” actually is when find yourself in a pinch.   

What God says, God means. So God repeats something in Scripture, it means that it is of   highly significant importance. Rev. Dr. David Chotka once wrote, “…to the Hebrew mind, anything said once by God was a “fact,” though it could be altered. For example, Isaiah the prophet was told by God to warn King Hezekiah that he should set his house in order, for his death was about to happen. Hezekiah prayed, asking for a longer life. God spared him and he was given fifteen more years (see 2 Kings 20:1-7). Here a “fact” uttered by God was issued as a word of warning. Here prayer moved the heart of God and God changed the “fact.” Anything repeated twice was underscored in an urgent way; this would be an established fact that could not be altered, as when Pharaoh had two dreams and Joseph the patriarch interpreted the message for him. Joseph indicated that something repeated twice meant that God was at work and the matter would occur speedily (see Genesis 41:32). Anything said three times was so profound that it was impossible to underscore it any further.”

This in mind, consider that at the end of Matthew 14, the writer notes, “People brought all their sick to him [Christ] and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.” The scene is reminiscent of the women who had been subject to bleeding, who thought, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Sure enough, she was healed. 

But it was not just Jesus’ cloak that healed. It was Jesus who brought healing. Even from the beginning of His ministry we learned, “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” In Matthew 8 we read of how He healed the centurion’s servant, and later, “When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.” Just before the feeding of the five thousand, “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” Again, one can recall the man with the shriveled hand and the demon-possessed man who was both blind and mute.

Over and over again we are told that Jesus healed. These things are not just written as historical narrative. They are written that we might know that Jesus is our healer. These things are repeated that we might know that this is an unalterable fact: Jesus heals. 

Matthew’s readers surely know that by now. Neveretheless, it is good to be reminded of that fact from time to time. As William Barclay said, “The most tremendous thing about Jesus was that he taught men and women what God was like by showing them what God was like. He did not tell them that God cared; he showed them that God cared. There is little use in preaching the love of God in words without showing the love of God in action.”

That’s not just good advice for us to take into our souls. It is good advice for us to actually act on.

We must do the thing God has called us to do, and do it in his power and for his glory.

Warren Wiersbe

APPLICATION: Intentionality

What is the Lord reminding you about? 

The disciples had been rowing very late into the night. When Jesus met  them by walking  across the open water, they worshipped Him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” Subsequently, it was in an attitude of worship that they finished their crossing of the Sea of Galilee. “When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.” 

In saying that, Matthew tells us the key to all that Jesus did at Gennesaret; “And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country.” 

There is a particular blessing that came when the people recognized Jesus. When the people of the land believed in the person of Jesus, and when they confessed that He was the One by spreading that news, healing came to their land. Those who drew near to Christ were blessed. Those who watched others draw near to Christ were also blessed, for those they knew and love were changed by His presence. The land itself was blessed, for its inhabitants were no longer under the curse of imminent judgment.

What we are reading is a partial fulfillment of God’s well-known promise in 2Chronicles 7, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 

It has always been this way. The blessing of the Kingdom is for the people of the King. When you are not in right relationship with God – be that on account of your own sin or the ignorance of your people – there is no overt blessing. There is only the general care God has for all sinners made in His image – as Jesus Himself said, “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Those who have not yet repented and called on the Name of God have only circumstance and the collateral blessing of His Spirit’s work on those around you (as Potiphar was blessed on account of Joseph). But when the people receive Him as a people group – then the people of that land can be legitimately called the people of God. Then the direct touch of God becomes evident as they (the people) draw close to Him in both confession (telling others about Christ) and action (seeking Him for healing). 

This promise is meant for all the earth, for the whole earth belongs to the Lord, and all those who live upon it. Yet it does not come to all the earth because the people of our land do not recognize Jesus. Even when the body of Christ is here and has been here for decades – if His body (the church) does not look like Him or sound like Him, the people will not recognize Him. That’s catastrophic, because you cannot confess what you do not know. If the people cannot see Jesus on account of His body’s presence, then they cannot confess Him. And if they cannot confess Him they cannot be known as His people, so the blessing of His presence cannot be realized.

Some hear, and others hear not.

Henry D.M.S. Jones

APPLICATION: Intentionality

How are you recognizing Christ in this season of your life? How are those around you recognizing Christ in you in this season?

“Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when   he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.” 

For all the disciples – but especially Peter – this incident on the lake of Galilee one night would’ve brought on a powerful sense of déjà vu. For not that long ago they were all in a boat on this same lake when a storm hit them, “…waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.” 

The two incidents are remarkably similar. A boat. A lake. A sense of impending death by drowning, even in the presence of Jesus. But the outcomes are decidedly different. After the former incident when the storm had calmed down, Matthew noted, “The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” But after the latter incident when Peter was walking on the water, Matthew notes, “Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”” 

What we are witnessing in the difference between the two incidents is the spiritual growth of the disciples. Where before they asked questions about Jesus’ identity, now who He is and who they are in relationship to Him is clear. For the disciples, Jesus is no longer a man like them. He is no longer just a man with unique gifting or special knowledge. In fact, now they know that Jesus is much more than a man. Now they know He is God, and that they are God’s people. This much they can confess, because this much they know. 

Our discipleship is a lifelong journey, not a four-year educational program that you can repeat if you fail. Nevertheless, like each subsequent year of an educational program, what we are gaining today is supposed to add to all we’ve experienced and come to know. We build on each past year and each past experience. There is no plateau or break in discipleship. There is only building toward Christlikeness, or sliding back toward worldliness.

Which direction we are going is highlighted by the way we respond to circumstance. For you cannot confess what you do not know, no matter how life threatening the situation is. But what you do know, you will confess. Perhaps at first, you confess it only under life-threatening circumstance. But later, as that aspect of discipleship becomes more and more a part of you – as you are built up in Christlikeness – you will confess it freely and without much prodding at all. 

This is the journey the disciples were on. This is the journey we are all on. 

Christ is praying for us in heaven; he always sees us, no matter the distance; and he controls the winds and the sea. The night may be long and filled with torment, but we will reach the kingdom of God through the grace of a divine rescue. God may wait until the fourth watch of the night, but Jesus always enters our boat and the winds cease.

Dean B. Deppe

APPLICATION: Intentionality

You cannot complete a long journey to the right destination by changing direction before they get there. 

Peter sees Jesus walking on the lake during a windstorm in the late of the  night. Perhaps  out of his frustration at having been sent away hours ago – separated from Jesus and excluded from whatever He was doing – Peter immediately asks to rejoin Jesus in what he sees Him doing now, “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”  

One imagines that Peter must have said that without thinking it through. Certainly Peter has reason to be not thinking clearly – they had rowed all night and would’ve been exhausted. Nevertheless, what happens next would stretch the faith of any disciple. Jesus responds with a command to join Him out on the lake, “Come.” 

Many are those who ask Jesus to speak to them. Many are those who hear the Lord clearly respond to them. But much fewer are those who have the courage to obey. For when the Lord does engage us with a direct command, it is to obey Him by acting in faith. Faith does not abide by the rules of common sense. Common sense says that if you see and hear someone telling you to get out of the boat to walk on the water, you are hallucinating. Common sense says that by getting out of the boat will immediately cause one to sink. Common sense says that getting out of the boat on a windy night is foolish in the extreme. 

But Peter had not just seen anyone on the water. It was Jesus. Peter knew He could trust in Jesus on these matters, because much earlier Jesus had commanded the wind and waves and they had obeyed Him. Peter knew that Jesus was master over the waves, and that common sense did not always apply to what Jesus could do. So what Peter was seeing and hearing was the master of the winds and waves calling on him to walk on them. So he obeys, “Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.” 

Surely Peter did not have far to walk. For him to have a conversation with Jesus while the rest of the disciples were rowing and the wind was howling, Jesus must have been reasonably close to the boat – perhaps 10 or 20 meters away. Peter would only have to take a few steps to get there and be with Him on the water. But stepping forward in faith when your friends are still in the boat requires that you loose the illusion of courage that the presence of friends affords. Standing on the water a few steps from the boat, Peter makes the critical mistake of taking his eyes off Jesus, “But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!””

Fortunately, whenever we step forward in faith, the Lord is both near and keeping His eye on us. Matthew records, “Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.” 

Let us step forward then not in fear at what we see around us, but with our eyes fully on Christ, and our hearts fully set on obedience to what He has already told us to do! 

The boat is safe, and the boat is secure, and the boat is comfortable. The water is high, the waves are rough, the wind is strong, and the night is dark. A storm is out there, and if you get out of your boat, you may sink. […] But if you don’t get out of your boat, you will never walk because if you want to walk on the water, you have to get out of the boat.

John Ortberg

APPLICATION: Intentionality

If your eyes are on Jesus, don’t be afraid to get out of the boat!

There are times we expect to encounter God. Sometimes there is a special gathering of   the saints for the purpose of going deeper in our relationship with Christ. If we go to one of those gatherings, is expected that we encounter Christ. When we have taken a week off as a Sabbath week to focus on Jesus, it is expected that we encounter Him. When we ‘feel the presence’ after a prolonged time in worship, it is expected that we meet Jesus. But when we are focused on our circumstance and all seems against us, we do not expect to meet Him. In fact, when we do see Jesus at such times, His presence startles us. It is unnerving and a bit scary. We were not expecting Him, and we were not expecting Him to be there in the midst of that unbecoming circumstance. 

In the late part of the night, Jesus has chosen to rejoin His disciples, who are rowing across the lake, “… Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.”

Reading Matthew’s account, it doesn’t seem all that bizarre to us. We who live on this side of the cross all expect Jesus – now resurrected and glorified – to be able to do things like walk across open water. But the disciples were at the time living on the far side of the cross. Jesus had not yet been crucified. His disciples were not even expecting Him to die at this point in His ministry. Yet now He walks across the open water. And it is not even still water! Matthew had written how Jesus had seen the boat, “..buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.” That meant there would’ve been considerable waves. The disciples would’ve been pulling with all their might on the oars, focused on trying to reach land. Moreover, having endured a long day with Jesus followed by this wild exercise session throughout the night, they’d be exhausted. One can almost imagine what is going through their minds. “Why did He tell us to leave when it was already getting dark?” “Why are we even trying to reach the far side – maybe we should go with the wind and head back to where we started?” “This is a crazy amount of opposition, why didn’t Jesus come with us?” 

And then, suddenly and without warning, a figure appears. It’s off the side of the boat. It looks like a man. A man doing what a man cannot do: Seemingly without effort overtaking the boat by walking on the waves in the dark of the night. One commentator writes, “Through the spray and in the gloom of early dawn the approaching figure could well look rather surreal; and walking on the water may seem to fit better with a floating spirit than a flesh-and-blood human figure.” It is little wonder they were terrified and did not recognize their Master. Yet there He is. And as always, His words are comforting and encouraging.” “But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 

Jesus may send us to do difficult things. But He is watching over us. He will come alongside us and speak to us. Even when we least expect it. PTL.

Expect to find Jesus where you’d least expect Him—more in failure than in success; more in poverty than in luxury; more among the downcast and dubious than the bright and beautiful.

Mike Erre

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Jesus is always with us when we are about His purposes. Apply your faith and take courage then;  He has not abandoned you, even if you see or hear Him not for a season. 

Jesus has finished ministering to the crowd. Determined to get some alone time with the   Father, He tells the disciples to go to back to the other side of the lake without Him, so He can spend time in prayer. 

“Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.” 

Now He is finally alone. Jesus can finally have some personal time with the Father. One might have therefore expected that He would spend the full night in prayer, and perhaps the next day walk back, taking the same overland route the crowd had taken. Yet, “When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.”  

Mark notes that Jesus saw His disciples struggling from His vantage point on the mountain; “He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them.” The disciples would be in a small fishing boat. Such boats were meant to be rowed out and back – they were not sailing ships. Of course, rowing when the wind is against you is a challenge. When the wind is producing strong waves it is more than a challenge – it can be a life-threatening situation. Matthew’s use of language (translated in English as “buffeted”, “battered” or “beaten”) conveys the degree of difficulty the disciples are finding themselves in. 

The reader immediately wants to know the rest of the story, and our eyes tend to jump to how Jesus responds. But there is profit in pausing here and considering what it was like for the men in the boat, because there are similar times in every disciple’s life. Times when – as a direct result of obedience to God’s explicit instruction – you find yourself being assaulted by circumstance. This is what our spiritual forefathers called the “dark night of the soul”, when in your face is nothing by elemental opposition. Just as for the disciples, both wind and water fought to hold them back. It is a time to be guided by God’s prior Word. A time to push forward by the strength only our passion to obey can muster, for we are acutely aware that God seems far off. Just as the disciples would be keenly aware that Jesus was not in the same boat.

Yet God does see. God does notice, and God does care. 

Jesus does not wait till morning to rejoin them. In His mercy to them and in the power of the Spirit, Jesus goes out to them while they are still on the water. He does not even wait till dawn to supernaturally rescue them, “During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.” Our God is ever on watch for us. Even in the midst of His communion with the Father, Jesus has His eye on us!  

The hand that upholds the, sun in the heavens guides the sparrow in its fall to the ground.

Thomas Robinson

APPLICATION: Thankfulness

The Lord is our shepherd. A very real help in time of need.

Jesus has just done the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. But He  did that after  He had set out in a boat to find a remote place and found this large crowd on the other side of the lake instead. Now that the crowd has been ministered to and fed, Jesus goes back to seeking time alone with His Father, “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.” 

This is something Jesus did throughout His ministry: He repeatedly retreats to spend time alone with His Father in prayer. 

There are times when prayer is best done corporately in large groups, because some decisions need to be taken in large groups. Whether that is a prayer of thanksgiving in regular worship, or an exercise in group discernment prayer for a new pastor, new building or new direction, or it is a time of corporate repentance, large corporate prayer must have a place in every Christ-follower’s life. 

Then there are times when prayer is best done in smaller groups. Prayer as ministry demands that (prayer for healing, deliverance and the breaking of strongholds). The one in need prays with the small group – which could be just one more, but is usually two or more. The others stand with them, exercise their spiritual gifting and call on God together. Prayer in small groups is also necessary when seeking spiritual protection, or when encouragement in the Lord or fellowship is a primary need. 

But then there are times when prayer simply must be done alone. This is not the pragmatic alone prayer time that most regularly employ. This is time alone with our Father when we need time alone with the Father. Especially when you need prayer for personal recharge. 

There are times in each disciples’ life when either the demands of life and ministry have taken so much from you that you are drained, or you are aware that they will shortly do so and you need to be “prayed up” to be able to face them. Like Jesus at this point in His ministry, you know you need to be alone with the Father. As soon as you can reasonably insert such a time into your schedule, you need to do so. 

As Jesus Himself said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” So the Psalmist wrote long ago, “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. […] Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.”

Go to God. Alone. He will meet with you, and you will find refreshment in Him.

At home, we take our rest; it is there we find repose after the fatigue and toil of the day. And so our hearts find rest in God, when, wearied with life’s conflict, we turn to him, and our soul dwells at ease.

Charles Spurgeon

APPLICATION: Intentionality

God alone is our source of every spiritual blessing. Seek Him and you will find Him!