February 28, 2025 | Be God's Family
Jesus Teaches His Disciples
Scripture: Matthew 17:14-27(NIV)
14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”
17 “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” 21 (Some manuscripts include here words similar to Mark 9:29)
22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.
24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”
25 “Yes, he does,” he replied.
When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”
26 “From others,” Peter answered.
“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 27 “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”
Devotional
The disciples asked Jesus in Matthew 17:19 “…why couldn’t we do that?” How many times have you thought this in your own mind? Then Jesus responds Matthew 17:21 …”if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, … you can move mountains…” Think about what a very small trust or belief could do for you.
Recently, I heard about a college student who had gone away from home to college. She was very frustrated as she was looking forward to being on her own and living away from Mom and Dad. However, with social media, her parents watched her non-stop, questioning her, if she was safe, going to classes and home by a certain time. No different than being at home. She turned off her location tracking and her parents became horrified that they couldn’t see what she was doing. She said to them. You trusted me to go away to school, now have faith, I will be safe and do as I should.
As parents, we do worry about our kids as they become adults. We must remember that a mustard seed size of trust can give them a whole new feeling as an adult. Yes, they will probably make some mistakes, but they will also learn from those problems and begin to fully believe they can be a self-sufficient adult. Parents showing a great example of trusting and having faith, just as Jesus told his disciples, is important to our kids.
Many times in life, we must accept what we think is impossible, and trust that God will be there for us with His guidance.
Today-what can you put that small amount of faith into?
Poem
The Fruit Of Your Truth
Psalm 119:81-88
The fruit of Your truth
Matured ripe on the Vine
Is harvested, ready
To make into wine
My heart, like new wineskins
Is ready—receive—
Pour Your teachings in me
Your laws I believe
Like wine brings to palate
Great feelings of joy
May You fill my cup
With Your will to employ
