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1/15 Reading Portions: Genesis 16; Matthew 15; Nehemiah 5; Acts 15

Listen to the audio devotional above, and/or read the written devotional below.

And the disciples said to Him, “Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?” Matthew 15:33

FORGETFUL

Why are the disciples so short of memory? Didn’t Jesus feed five thousand men, as well as the women and children, with the two miracle fish and five loaves of wonder bread just a chapter earlier? Is it any wonder why Jesus often said to the disciples, “O ye of little faith” (Matt 8:26, KJV)?

In light of the perfect presence of Jesus Christ, sinful men are exposed for what we truly are. We are forgetful. We are faithless. We are full of faults, foibles and failures. We forsake what is true and often fill ourselves with what is false. We should be ashamed at how short we fall from the glory of God at every spiritual glimpse of Christ.

When Jesus quoted Scripture, He either mentioned the prophet who did prophesy the truth (Matt 15:7-9), or He simply said, “It is written…” (Matt 4:4, 7, 10). As beings created in the image and likeness of God, we are expected to know God and what He has said— thoroughly and intimately. Yet, because we are sinful descendants of fallen Adam, Christ’s mere mention of any passage of Scripture, flowing from His soul so effortlessly, is an indictment of how we have either forgotten or forsaken the Word of God. Today, many preachers almost seem to make a big show of reciting chapter and verse, even though men didn’t begin parsing the Scriptures until the thirteenth century.

Nevertheless, each time we are shamed by our flesh and faithlessness because Christ’s glory is revealed to our souls, we may take heart because Jesus, in His mercy and by His steadfast love, demonstrates the miracle of His power and presence so we may serve Him for His great glory (Matt 15:36). Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Jesus Christ, the Faithful One,
Shows to us how short we fall
Of God’s glory— Yet, the Son,
By God’s grace, is all in all.

dried fish — “The Shame of Faithlessness” Matthew 15:33

Jon J. Cardwell's Daily Devotionals & Commentaries

The Shame of Faithlessness