Daily devotion – Who do you say that I am?
During our tours of Israel, we head north to Dan. To a place called Caesarea Philippi. At this location, Jesus journeyed with His disciples, and he asked a most poignant question there.
(Mark 8:27–30; Luke 9:18–20 )
Matthew 16:13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Each time we visit there, I always find a quiet spot while most people are looking around at this beautiful location. From here, Jesus would begin His journey to Jerusalem, where He would have the Last Supper with His disciples, pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, be arrested, and be tried before Pilate. He would be brutally beaten, mocked, and whipped before carrying His Cross to Calvary, where He would be crucified amongst two thieves and die.
By the illumination of the Holy Spirit, Peter revealed from his lips that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the Son of God!
As Jesus left Caesarea Philippi, what were the thoughts going through His mind on that extensive journey to Jerusalem? The disciples still did not capture the essence of what Peter said until after Jesus rose from the grave.
For Jesus, this was the moment He had been born. The reason He had taken on the body of a man – He had come to die for our sins.
Last Sunday, we celebrated as a Church, Holy Communion, to remember Jesus, our blessed Saviour and His incredible sacrifice for each of us through the emblems of the bread and the cup. But time prohibits us from truly immersing ourselves in the wonder of this sacrament – the Lord’s Table.
Therefore, this week, will you take that time to step into your private place, where you meet seriously and alone with the Lord and sit before His feet, be filled with the wonder of His love and grace – with no time restriction or other distractions?
Prayer and alone time with Jesus is vitally important for us as individuals. God has made us need alone time with Him, away from all distractions.
This why Jesus tells us such in Matthew’s Gospel 6:6: “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in private will reward you openly.
Such times as this are as vital to us as the air we breathe, for we are made in the image of God. The fundamental part of us needs a spiritual contact time with the Lord.
If we do this, we won’t be like the disciples who quickly forgot the importance of Peter’s statement, but we will be overwhelmed with the wonder that Christ would suffer and die for us as sinners who deserve only justice!
As you take time to do this regularly, your relationship with God will grow and mature, and you will be as intimate with Him as Abram, whom God called His ‘friend’.
Someone who shares everything with the other and for whom a genuine relationship exists.
Enjoy your alone time this week!