Daily Devotional for Monday 18th March
Too amazing not to share!
We now begin the week before Holy Week which culminates in Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead! Lazarus had been buried in a tomb for 4 days! And Jesus prays to the Father, and calls Lazarus to come out from the tomb, and he did (John 11:1-44).
As you can imagine, this created quite a stir. Many people believed in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, because of that miracle. And yet still some people were currying favour with the Pharisees and other religious leaders and went to report Jesus to them.
The chief priests and Pharisees convened a council to discuss this, and out of their own mouths they revealed their heart motivations. They said, “If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation” (v. 48). They were more worried about losing their power and prestige. They were willing to kill an innocent man to keep their status with Rome (v.53).
Passover, a major Jewish festival and spiritual event, was coming up. Every Jew who could would be traveling to Jerusalem to celebrate it there. And everyone wanted to know – would Jesus be there?
The bible says that it is out of our mouths that we reveal our hearts (what we think secretly and what motivates our words and actions) (1 Samuel 16:7; 2 Chronicles 16:9; Matthew 15:10; Luke 6:45). God sees our hearts and knows us through and through.
Time to reflect…
The next time we are moved to say or do something from a selfish or bad motivation, thinking no one else will know, let’s remember that God sees us and knows our hearts. Even if no one else knows we did the right thing, God will!
Pause to pray…
Use Psalm 139:23-24 as a prayer to our Father God today.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Test me and know my anxious thoughts;
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.”
