Above The Status Quo (Daily Devotional)

Greetings and welcome to Living Supernaturally. Thank you so much once again for giving us this opportunity to spend these few moments in God’s word and prayer. This week, we’ve been talking about the miracles that Jesus performed during His earthly ministry and we close this week, talking about above the status quo. Luke chapter 13, verses 14 through 17, ‘Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.” The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.’ Jesus always asked probing questions to help people think. The religious leaders are often arrogant and they think they have done all of peoples thinking for them. But then Jesus asks them a question that shows the that they still have a lot to learn. The story gives an example for us. The community has certain roles and ways of doing things and when Jesus steps in and interrupts the pattern by healing a woman on the Sabbath day, the religious elders were unhappy. Jesus isn’t supposed to mess with the status quo. The woman He went to in the synagogue was bound for 18 years. Jesus spoke a word of both compassion and authority to the woman. He also laid His hands on her giving a compassionate touch for He wished to show His special sympathy for this sad case of suffering. It may be a surprise that the ruler of the synagogue was upset at such a wonderful miracle. He was angry because Jesus healed on the Sabbath. Jesus didn’t respond with gentleness; with authority He confronted the ruler of the synagogue who valued biblical commands more than love and compassion. She was a daughter of Abraham, a Jewish woman, in covenant with Abraham. The woman was healed and the ruler of the synagogue was obviously wrong but all rejoiced in Jesus’ victory. We might put Jesus in a box and figure that as long as He fits in our box or comfort zone, we are ok with Him. But then Jesus, in true loving fashion, kicks away the sides of those boxes, He doesn’t want us to miss the reality that outside of our comfort zone, there are miracles waiting for us. He wants us to see those miracles and He wants us to learn from the. It is easy to hang on to our ideas, we can get used to customs and traditions but when we get used to them, we may lose sight of the full life that God has for us. Today, even as we have studied all these wonderful miracles that Jesus has performed, remember the Lord Jesus is willing to perform these wonderful miracles in each of our lives. Let’s pray, Father, we thank you for this entire week and for giving us this opportunity to spend these moments in your word. Thank you that you are the God of miracles. We pray that you will continue to reveal yourself, reveal your works in and through our lives to enable us to be salt and light in this city, in the nation and in the nations. We give you all the praise and all the glory and honor, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Thank you for tuning in to living supernaturally, for more resources to strengthen your spiritual strengthen your spiritual walk, please visit apcwo.org

Daily devotions to strengthen your faith each day. Daily Devotional for Spirit filled living. Each daily devotion is about five minutes in duration. These daily devotionals are centered around a weekly theme. So there are seven daily devotions that focus on the theme and bring you insight, understanding and revelation from the Bible. Each week’s theme is listed as a series. So you can listen to the current week’s devotions or go to any previous theme/series that speaks to your present need (https://apcwo.org/resources/daily-devotions ). Also available free sermons (https://apcwo.org/sermons), and free Christian books (https://apcwo.org/books) to nourish and strengthen your faith.