Daily Devotional: Wednesday, April 22, 2020
SCRIPTURE READING
Scripture: John 15:5b (KJV) for without me ye can do nothing.
When I was a little boy, I was on a walk with my family and I stooped over and picked a dandelion. Dandelions are in bloom right now. Look at them growing in the grass; aren’t they cheerful with their bright yellow faces?
Walking with my family, the dandelions looked beautiful to me, so I picked one, holding it in my tiny fist as we walked.
After a while I got tired and had a hard time keeping up with my family. My Daddy picked me up and began carrying me, but after a couple minutes I said, “Daddy, put me down! I want to carry my own Dandelion!”
When we’re children growing up, we never stop saying to our Mommy and Daddy, “Put me down. I don’t need your help. I can do it myself!”
It’s good for little boys to learn to tie their shoes themselves, isn’t it? It’s good for little girls to learn to brush their own hair, isn’t it?
But it’s not good for boys and girls to think they can live without their Mommy and Daddy.
Did you know grownups do this with our Heavenly Father? They tell God they don’t need Him. They tell God they can make up their own mind. They tell God they won’t obey Him. They tell God they can work out and keep healthy. They tell Him they know how to keep themselves healthy and they don’t need Him to protect or heal them. They tell Him they can make lots of money and buy what they want themselves. They tell God they know what is true and what is false and they don’t need His Bible.
Jesus was warning His disciples that they couldn’t bear fruit unless they were abiding in Him and the disciples didn’t like it. They wanted to carry their dandelions themselves.
So Jesus stopped in the middle of His teaching and got intense with them. He told them, “Without Me, you can do nothing.”
This is humbling, isn’t it? Without Jesus we can do nothing. We can’t even take one single breath without Jesus.
Scripture: John 15:5b (KJV) for without me ye can do nothing.
QUESTIONS
- Can Dr. Spaetti heal someone of Coronavirus without God’s help?
- Can your Mommy get you a glass of water without God’s help?
- What can your Daddy do without Jesus?
SONG OF THE WEEK
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of God’s unchanging love.
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I’m come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Dear Father, we depend upon You for everything, especially for the grace of Your Holy Spirit. May we feel Him perpetually bearing us up, by the strength of our faith, above the temptations that may at any time assault us. Amen.
OTHER PRAYER NEEDS
- Provision for those in the church looking for work
- God’s wisdom for our leaders
- Grace and patience for this prolonged quarantine
SCRIPTURE MEMORY THIS WEEK
John 15:3-4 (KJV)
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
