Hey Clawson Family!

Song:

Scripture:

Matthew 8:23-27 New Living Translation

23 Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples. 24 Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

26 Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm.

27 The disciples were amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked. “Even the winds and waves obey him!”

Matthew 9:37-38 New Living Translation

37 He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. 38 So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”

Devotional: 

In the skydiving world, you have to do two jumps strapped to an instructor, watching what they are doing in the air before you can ever jump on your own.

Why? Because you can have all the knowledge in the world, but when you fall through the sky at 120 miles per hour, sometimes knowledge goes out the window! You forget everything that you knew. But when you have watched someone do what you need to do, a lot of times, that comes back to your memory and helps you do the right things.

As you watch someone else, that image can be stored in your memory bank, so if you forget what was told to you, at least you can remember what it looked like. In these two jumps, your only goal is to watch and learn.

This is precisely what Jesus did in training the disciples in Matthew 8-9! He pretty much straps them to Him to watch what He is about to do because eventually, He wants them to be doing what he is doing. 

Matthew 8 starts with Jesus healing a man with leprosy. He heals the Roman officer's servant. He heals a whole crowd of people. He calms a storm. We end chapter 8 with Him casting out 2000 demons from a man and sending them into some pigs. The pigs run off a cliff and into the sea.

They probably have no idea what Jesus is doing. They are just watching and learning. In reality, He is preparing them for what He is about to tell them to do in Matthew 10. In Matthew 9, Jesus calls Matthew. He heals lots more people to show Matthew how it is done. He does a little teaching. Then, He ends chapter 9 by setting them up to be sent out to do what He has been showing them how to do.

He prepared them to go out into the fields and do the work. He did all of these things while the disciples were watching, learning, and enjoying the ride.

Jesus taught them the fundamentals. He gave them all kinds of information on being His disciple. He has now strapped them to his back for two chapters and shown them what it looks like to heal people, cast out demons, and speak on the Kingdom of God. They got their two jumps strapped to their instructor. Jesus wants to do the same thing with us. He sent us the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. We must be in our word, watching and learning from Jesus just as the disciples did.

Journal:

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you something new about the Bible today. In your journal, write down something God is teaching you through His Word right now.

Training:

Dear Lord,

 I need You today. I need Your direction. Your counsel. And I need Your wisdom. I believe that You, the Counselor, are in me. Guide me today in Your will.  Today, Help me listen to the Holy Spirit as I read your word. Teach me what I need to learn, and help me grow.

 In Jesus’ Name, Amen.