Daily Devotional For Friday, October 31, 2025
Good morning Southside. Rise and shine. This is the day the Lord has made and we can rejoice and be glad in it. If you have been reading these daily devotionals, you know we are making our way through the Gospel of Matthew. Let’s pick up where we left off in Matthew 11:25-27:
“At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. (26) Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. (27) All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (NASB).
If you read yesterday’s devotional, you know that two characteristics stood out in the Jews and their religious leaders who heard Jesus’ teaching and experienced His miracles: criticism and indifference. Did you notice Jesus’ reaction to their criticism and indifference? He praised God the Father. “Praise” is a strong term for worship, where Jesus is thanking God the Father for all He has done for Him. The Greek word translated as “Father” is the equivalent of the Aramaic word “Abba” = daddy. This word implies a close and intimate loving relationship. “Lord of heaven and earth” refers to God’s sovereignty and lordship over this whole universe.
Jesus praised God the Father for hiding the truth of His teaching from the arrogant, the educated and prideful and for revealing it to “children” – the humble who received it. This was a denunciation of the hypocritical, prideful and educated religious leaders and an affirmation of Jesus’ uneducated disciples. Spiritual understanding is not based on one’s race, education, term of church membership and attendance, Spiritual understanding is a gift from the Lord (see Isaiah 29:14, 1 Cor. 1:19-20 and James 4:6.
Because God is sovereign, He hides and reveals as He wills. In verse 27, Jesus affirms the unity of the Trinity. New Testament scholar Bruce B. Barton writes on this:
- “All things have been committed to me by my Father. These words explain shared knowledge. There are no secrets between Father and Son and never have been. The present perfect tense of “have been committed” indicates that this has been the case from eternity past into eternity future. Jesus is the only source of the revelation that is hidden or revealed (11:25–26).
- No one knows the Son except the Father. In the Old Testament, “know” means more than knowledge; it implies an intimate relationship. The communion between God the Father and God the Son is the core of their relationship. Jesus claimed an intimate relationship that no one else can ever have. Those who make Jesus out to be nothing more than a great teacher have ignored such statements as this, statements that force us to a decision as to whether Jesus really is who He claimed to be.
- No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. For anyone else to know God, God must reveal Himself to that person, by the Son’s choice. How fortunate we are that Jesus has clearly revealed to us God, his truth, and how we can know Him. People can only approach God through Jesus—He truly is the only way (John 14:6). That Jesus praised the Father for making this choice (11:26) and then explained that the Father had given the Son this authority again emphasizes Jesus’ true identity” (Source: Bruce B. Barton, The Life Application Bible Commentary, “Matthew,:” p. 228).
When we read how Jesus prayed, it probably seems shocking and unexpected. Pastor and author Chuck Swindoll writes this:
“What an unexpected thing to pray! We would instead expect Jesus to ask the Father to open the eyes of all the spiritually blind so they would believe. It’s difficult to wrap our minds around the idea that God might have bigger plans that involve leaving people in their self-condemning unbelief and rebellion. However, Jesus was echoing a prophecy in Isaiah 29:13–14, which states, “Because this people draw near with their words, And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote, (14) Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; And the wisdom of their wise men will perish, And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.” Paul also picked up on this prophecy when he wrote, “The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (19) For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside’ ” (1 Cor. 1:18–19, NASB) – (Source: Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Bible Commentary, “Matthew 1-15,” Vol. 1A, pp. 221-222).
Assignment: How do you feel about the Lord keeping His truth from the rebellious, the sinful and the arrogant? Why? This text affirms that no one on their own can get “saved.” Salvation from beginning to end is all by God. We are spiritually dead prior to Christ. The last time I checked, dead people do not do anything. Only God the Father can create in spiritually dead people even a desire for Him. That is Jesus’ point in John 6:44.Unless the Father draws us to Him, we will remain dead in our sins. Salvation is never by our works. That is the Apostle Pauls point in Eph. 2:8-9. Even our terminology is wrong. We may say, “Well, I gave my life to Christ.” No. No. No. He gave His life to us after we responded to the Father’s drawing us to Him. So, how is your response currently to the Father’s will in your life?
Scripture To Mediate On: 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; (27) but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, (28) and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, (29) so that no man may boast before God” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Father, thank You for drawing me to You. Forgive me when I take credit for things I shouldn’t. I do not want to give You lip service. I do not want to be filled with religious traditions, but the power of Your Holy Spirit. Help me Lord to do this. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside – Pastor Kelly