August 7: Matthew 17:14-20
 
Key Verse: Matthew 17:17
‘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.’
 
Devotion:
Can you imagine Jesus yelling at people? Can you imagine Jesus doing anything out of the ordinary? Well, He was not ordinary! Far from ordinary! Jesus did things, not to get a response from anyone, but because they needed to know the truth or to be shown the truth.
 
Sometimes we get so caught up in the world we lose focus on what is actually important – we leave behind the things which matter and we take on the useless things which are of no real value, treating them as though they matter! Jesus also pointed out to people when they were losing focus on their own faith, something we need to keep a tight hold on in our lives.
 
Often, we stop believing certain values in our lives because we see too many people either breaking those values or discarding them; we become despondent and no longer hold those values as precious. Jesus wants us to remember the values He gives us and which we have written in our bibles. He wants us to remember the things God has been trying to teach us because those are the things we need to remember rather than all the clutter in our lives.
 
The disciples had faith – why else would they be following Jesus and believing in Him! But it was at times like these when they saw a bit too much “agro” or a bit too much heavy going when they would turn away from that faith and believe in the worldly things instead. Jesus wants us to know we can go to Him at any time, we can lift up our prayers at any time and we must keep believing He is going to answer those prayers all of those times we ask. That is why it is called faith...
 
Points to Ponder:
Do you get side-tracked by the world?
 
Will you try to focus on Christ more today?