Quiet Time in Matthew 14
- Filip
- Jul 12, 2022
- 4 min read
EXPAND TO READ: MATTHEW 14 (HCSB)
John the Baptist Beheaded
14 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus. 2 “This is John the Baptist!” he told his servants. “He has been raised from the dead, and that’s why supernatural powers are at work in him.”
3 For Herod had arrested John, chained him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, 4 since John had been telling him, “It’s not lawful for you to have her!” 5 Though he wanted to kill him, he feared the crowd, since they regarded him as a prophet.
6 But when Herod’s birthday celebration came, Herodias’s daughter danced before them and pleased Herod. 7 So he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. 8 And prompted by her mother, she answered, “Give me John the Baptist’s head here on a platter!” 9 Although the king regretted it, he commanded that it be granted because of his oaths and his guests. 10 So he sent orders and had John beheaded in the prison. 11 His head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. 12 Then his disciples came, removed the corpse, buried it, and went and reported to Jesus.
Feeding 5,000
13 When Jesus heard about it, He withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone. When the crowds heard this, they followed Him on foot from the towns. 14 As He stepped ashore, He saw a huge crowd, felt compassion for them, and healed their sick.
15 When evening came, the disciples approached Him and said, “This place is a wilderness, and it is already late. Send the crowds away so they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”
16 “They don’t need to go away,” Jesus told them. “You give them something to eat.”
17 “But we only have five loaves and two fish here,” they said to Him.
18 “Bring them here to Me,” He said. 19 Then He commanded the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 Everyone ate and was filled. Then they picked up 12 baskets full of leftover pieces! 21 Now those who ate were about 5,000 men, besides women and children.
Walking on the Water
22 Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowds. 23 After dismissing the crowds, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone. 24 But the boat was already over a mile from land, battered by the waves, because the wind was against them. 25 Around three in the morning, He came toward them walking on the sea. 26 When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 Immediately Jesus spoke to them. “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s You,” Peter answered Him, “command me to come to You on the water.”
29 “Come!” He said.
And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out His hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 Then those in the boat worshiped Him and said, “Truly You are the Son of God!”
Miraculous Healings
34 Once they crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. 35 When the men of that place recognized Him, they alerted the whole vicinity and brought to Him all who were sick. 36 They were begging Him that they might only touch the tassel on His robe. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well.
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
SIN (verse 31): Peter seems to suffer, in this moment at least, with similar issues I suffer from quite often even since coming to faith—fear and doubt. It’s not something I am proud of by any stretch of the imagination that’s for sure, but something I am fully aware of. I do often let my fears and doubt control my words and actions in this life, unfortunately. Forgive me for this, Father. Help me to resemble Jesus more in this life than I ever have. Help me to live in full trust of You, regardless of what the outcome may entail in this life. I know that there will be times when You want me to walk a path which my flesh will want to default to fear and doubt, but that doesn’t mean You aren’t there for me throughout it all. Help me to be better at leaning on You through the storms in those moments when fear and doubt try to show themselves, Father.
PROMISE (verses 31-33): I still find it amazing how the disciples themselves still suffered from doubt, worry, and fear even while they were walking alongside Jesus in the flesh. A bold statement is made here, once again, that essentially shows them reaffirming their faith but also reveals a promise about Jesus: “Truly You are the Son of God!” Although this promise to them had been made many times before, them saying it in this moment reminds me that sometimes when I am weak, I do need to remind myself of Your truths and Your promises. It isn’t necessarily because I am lacking in faith, but because I am a weak and broken man in this crazy world who simply needs reminders of Your truths and promises just as the disciples did here. They knew Jesus was the true Son of God, but to get passed their fear and worry they spoke out a reminder of this promise to themselves as a reassurance.
ATTITUDE (verse 9): Living in an attitude of regret or remorse is not something I would ever wish on anyone, yet I have lived this way with many of my choices throughout my life. The same applied even here to King Herod when he chose to abide by his word to grant his daughter a gift of John the Baptist’s beheading to present to her. As stated here, he immediately regretted that decision, but felt like he had no choice but to go through with it due to the crowds and him giving his word to her. Help me to no longer live in this attitude of regret, Father. Help me to no longer live in a way that I feel obligated to go forward with something I’ll regret after the fact, just because I told someone I would. I would rather live in Your glory than live in my own self-inflicted shame, regret, and remorse, so please help me to remember this throughout the remainder of my life. The world’s opinion of me makes no difference if I am not living my life in a way that is pleasing to You, Father.
COMMAND (verse 27): Jesus spoke to the disciples directly here, while literally walking on water in the middle of the seas while a storm was happening! WOW! The words he spoke to them are definitely a command, but also one that would be hard to fathom truly adhering to in the moment given the circumstances. You have a crazy storm going on that’s shaking the ship they’re in every which way. Then they see someone from the distance coming towards them that appears to be walking on water during this crazy storm! I would definitely have given into my fear in this moment for sure. You command them, however, to have courage and to not be afraid! This command can be directly tied to everything I do on a daily basis. I do not have to live in fear or worry, because You are with me. If I am abiding in Your will for my life and Your truths, then nothing this life has in store for me should break the courage You can give to me in those moments. I know for a regular old human who has been through quite a bit in his life that this seems like an impossible task, but as my life verse in Matthew 19:26 says: “With man these things are impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Help me to live in Your possible, Father, instead of always trying to limp through life with my own impossible.
EXAMPLE (verses 13, 23): I know Jesus prayed quite often, but I do find it profound that He sought out remote locations to come to You in prayer through the peaceful calm of nature. Maybe this was to draw closer to You, maybe this was because He just wanted to get away from the crowds for a bit, or maybe it was because He struggled with things just as I do and wanted to come to You privately about those things. Whatever the case, I like to think that Jesus still carried with Him all of the emotions that I carry with me, although none of those emotions led Him to sin as He’s the perfect Son of God. In the first verse, He immediately went to be alone for prayer when He was informed by His disciples about John the Baptist. I’m sure He already knew about this because He is God, but at the same time I’m sure He also wanted some time to cry out to You and release some of these sorrowful emotions through prayer. Thank You for giving us Your perfect Son, Father, so that I can learn from His great example every day of my life.
*DAILY NOTE: I see Matthew’s story about following Jesus here is starting to ramp up quite a bit with a lot of the bigger, crazier things that occurred during His ministry. Jesus walked on water, He made a few loaves of bread feed thousands, He healed likely just as many, all while taking on His should some emotions about His great friend John and showing us that through prayer we can release that heavy burden to You! Thank You for His great example and for always knowing how to speak to me and when to speak to me about certain topics, Father. I am grateful for today’s lesson because it reveals to me some things I still need to work on in this life.
EXPAND TO READ: GENERAL NOTE FOR MY QUIET TIMES
I always "sandwich" my quiet time with God in prayer and do it in a location that I will not have any distractions so that I can be focused on my quiet time with God. Do not worry about how short or long your journal entries are for that day's quiet time. Just focus on the actual quiet time and relational conversation with God through the Holy Spirit and His Word. The journaling is an enhancement to your quiet time conversation with God, but also to allow you to reflect on things later as you can look back on your journal entries later when you do the chapters again in the future to see how you have grown. See the FAQ for more detail on how I do my quiet time.
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