Daily Devotional from Pastor Mary 9-30-20

Matthew 9:2-8
2 Just then some people brought a paraplegic man to him, lying on a sleeping mat. When Jesus perceived the strong faith within their hearts, he said to the paralyzed man, “My son, be encouraged, for your sins have been forgiven.”[Jesus perceived the faith of the Almighty present for forgiveness]

3 These words prompted some of the religious scholars who were present to think, “Why, that’s nothing but blasphemy!”

4 Jesus supernaturally perceived their thoughts, and said to them, “Why do you carry such evil in your hearts? 5 Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or, ‘Stand up and walk!’? [Forgiveness and healing flow from the Lord] 6 But now, to convince you that the Son of Man has been given authority to forgive sins, I say to this man, ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk home.’” 7 Immediately the man sprang to his feet and left for home.

8 When the crowds witnessed this miracle, they were awestruck.[seized with fear] They shouted praises to God because he had given such authority to human beings.

The life of Jesus teaches us many things about the holy perspective of Almighty God. For example, in our passage today we see how God perceives things, orchestrates opportunities to reveal the Truth of his love, and how human beings respond to the supernatural goodness of our Creator. Jesus perceives the hearts of everyone involved in this opportunity: the paraplegic man, the men carrying him toward salvation, the religious scholars, as well as the crowd. Jesus supernaturally perceives the hearts of everyone involved and what is being carried inside those hearts; the Lord alone has perfect knowledge of both good and evil. The hearts that actually carry evil, are the very ones we would have never perceived correctly with our natural minds. This is how deception works.

The curse humanity received in the Garden of Eden was also the knowledge of good and evil; humanity chose to eat from that tree and began to live in a fallen perspective of God, the world, ourselves, neighbors, and Satan. Remember the words of Satan to his prey, “The day you eat of this tree your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil (Gen 3:5). Please don’t ever forget, Satan uses pieces of truth to deceive and rob humanity (he comes as an angel of light but with evil motives to bring spiritual blindness). The piece of Truth Satan purposefully left out was we were never created to know evil. Remember, God looked over all he had made and saw it was very good (Gen 1:31)? That is why Satan tempts humanity to sin or rebel against God’s authority; because then we are vulnerable to deception.

Apart from the salvation of Christ, we do not perceive good and evil properly. Only Christ can bring us a perfect perspective of good and evil; the fear of the Lord [reverence for God’s authority] is the beginning of knowledge (Pro 1:7). Scripture teaches in the last days, people’s perspective of good and evil will take a major shift; good will be called evil and evil will be called good because people perceive themselves to be clever and shrewd without God; this is the spirit of antichrist (Isa. 5:20-21). May we take time every day to humbly bow before the Lord’s authority, pray and ask God to give us a supernatural perspective of good and evil so we may choose to live for the glory of our Creator and Lord. We overcome and defeat evil by doing good (Rom. 12:21).

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for creating your children to live in your goodness. Continue to deliver us from evil. Thank you, Jesus, for being an example of the holy perspective that has been made available to those who are willing to live in your goodness. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for bringing us the power to choose goodness, so you will be glorified in our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.