SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/6/2023 10:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Self-Serving Ambition”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
20:22-24
Message of the verses: “22 But Jesus
answered, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the
cup that I am about to drink?" They said to Him, "We are able." 23
He said to them, "My cup you shall drink; but to sit on My right and on My
left, this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been
prepared by My Father." 24 And hearing this, the ten became
indignant with the two brothers.”
John MacArthur writes the following which can give
us a hint as to why kind of a person who will sit next to our Lord during the
Millennial Kingdom where Christ will rule on earth for 1000 years from His
throne in Jerusalem. He writes “Suffering
from physical afflictions such as disease, deformity, and accident or from
emotional distresses of a lost job or the death of a loved one can be used by
the Lord to strengthen believers spiritually.
He can help them grow even through problems and hardships they bring on
themselves because of foolishness or sin. But the affliction that brings
eternal glory is that which is brought about and is willingly endured because
of faithfulness to the Lord. It is
suffering because of the gospel, being “persecuted for the sake of righteousness”
(Matt. 5:10). The one who has the
greatest glory beside Christ in heaven will be the one who has faithfully endured
the greatest suffering for Him on earth.”
As
I was thinking about this my mind went to something that the Lord said about “Saul
(Paul)” when the Lord saved him on the Damascus Road found in the 9th
chapter of Acts. “10 Now there was a
disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision,
"Ananias." And he said, "Here I am, Lord." 11 And the Lord said to him, "Get up
and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a
man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named
Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his
sight." 13 But Ananias answered,
"Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your
saints at Jerusalem; 14 and here he has authority
from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name." 15 But the Lord
said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name
before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16 for I will show him how much he must suffer for
My name’s sake’” (Acts 9:10-16). In
the 11th chapter of 2nd Corinthians Paul gives a summary
of all the sufferings that he endured for the cause of Christ, but throughout
that passage Paul showed his humility in doing this as he was giving his
credentials of being an Apostle, as some were questing it. Perhaps it will be Paul who sits beside
Christ during His Millennial Kingdom. I
have at times wondered if it was not suppose to be Paul who would take the
place of Judas, but after studying the book of Acts I now believe that it was
Mathias who was the one to do this. I
thought that perhaps this was another time when Peter got too much in a hurry in
choosing the replacement for Judas. With
that said perhaps it will be Paul to have this greatest of honors sitting
beside Christ.
I
want to talk about the cup that Christ speaks about in verses 22 and 23, as
this is important to understand what this is about. To drink the cup meant to drink the full
measure, leaving nothing. This was a
common expression that meant to stay with something to the end, to endure to
the limits, no matter what the cost involved.
Now the cup that Jesus was about to drink was infinitely worse than the
physical agony of the cross. I wrote
about His sufferings in an earlier SD, and also stated there that it was more
than His sufferings on the cross. I
talked about the agony of the cross or the emotional anguish of being forsaken
by His friends, painful as those were, and there were other sufferings that
Jesus went through too. MacArthur writes
“The full measure of His cup was taking the world’s sin upon Himself, an agony
so horrible that He prayed ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass
from Me; yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt’ (Matt. 26:39).”
Lord willing we will talk more about this subject in
our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today:
Paul talks in 2 Corinthians about his “thorn in the flesh” something
that I think goes along with physical suffering that was mentioned earlier in
this SD. I have had problems with my “guts”
ever since I was young, and I believe that this could qualify as a thorn in the
flesh for me, as I think that the Lord has used this predicament to cause me to
lean on Him. I am saying that I would
not grow as much in the Lord without this issue.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust that the Lord will cause me to have
more of a steady walk with Him, and I believe that has to do with my mind, and controlling
my mind for the cause of Christ. With
that said I desire to memorize Philippians 4:8 which I believe will help me in
having better control of my mind.
Memory verse: “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is
any excellence and
if anything worthy of
praise, dwell on
these things.”
5/6/2023 11:35 AM
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