3 Day Communion Devotional: Receive Strength, Peace, and Wholeness

Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me” (Hebrews 10:5 NKJV).

The purpose of Jesus’ first coming to earth could not be accomplished without His body.

A human body. Jesus’ 33 years on earth, beginning in the manger and ending in the total redemption of Adam’s race, brought salvation to all the areas of mankind that were fractured by sin. This required all the physical stages of Jesus’ life.

The part Jesus’ body was to play in the Father’s plan was not a fleeting thought in His mind but was perfectly planned before creation, before humankind existed. Hebrews 10:5 says Jesus’ body was “prepared” by God. The preparation involved covenants with certain individuals and included scores of people over many generations, each playing their destined role.

Finally, in the fullness of time, the perfect time, Jesus was born of a woman. Mary, Jesus’ mother, was not just some random woman but one God chose to provide the human aspect that His Word would live in. The God/Man. Incarnated.

Communion

Thank You, Father, for Your great plan of redemption which required that You give Your Son to the world. I gratefully acknowledge everyone involved in Your perfect plan that led up to Jesus’ birth. I pause to recognize that Jesus’ conception and birth as a baby boy was strategically part of Your great plan to redeem mankind and bring us back to Yourself.

As I hold the bread today and drink the cup, I acknowledge Jesus’ entire and perfectly planned life that each represents and thank You for planning it all.

Additional Scriptures to Consider

Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1-3 NLT; John 1:14; Philippians 2:7-8 NLT; Hebrews 2:14; Galatians 4:4-5; Romans 1:2-4 NLT; 9:4-5 NLT; 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 John 1:1-3 NLT

Exposed

So the Word became human and made his home among us… (John 1:14 NLT)

Jesus wasn’t born in a time of history when the nation of Israel was at its spiritual peak or in its most prosperous state.

The fullness of time for Him to be born was when Israel was struggling under Roman occupation. Jesus also didn’t live above us in a place of privilege that insulated and shielded Him from human sufferings. No, before He was anointed by the Holy Spirit to bring healing and deliverance, He physically lived among us for 30 years, intentionally exposing His senses to the effects of human sin, difficulties, and the pain that sin caused.

Jesus experienced how political injustice affected people He loved. He saw sick and crippled people and the cruel effects of poverty. He grew up hearing people cry because of their suffering. Words of anger and abuse were not foreign to His ears. He smelled disease that wasted the flesh and the terrible consequences of sin and of demonic oppression.

By the time Jesus went to the Cross, He was well aware of and thoroughly acquainted with what it was that He was going to have to bear.

Communion

My dear heavenly Father, thank You for Your amazing plan of redemption. Jesus, thank You for not resisting the life that God’s plan required You to experience. You didn’t withdraw and hide Your eyes from the conditions of fallen humanity. As I hold this bread in my hand and as I drink this cup today, I am so grateful that You lived as a person among us and were thoroughly exposed to every-thing that eventually You would save us from.

Additional Scriptures to Consider

Galatians 4:4-5 NLT; Isaiah 50:4 AMPC

Exposed But Not Contaminated

The Bible says this: “He never did anything that was wrong. He never said anything that was not true” (1 Peter 2:22 EASY).

This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin (Hebrews 4:15 NLT).

Sacrificing babies has been a practice of many pagan religions to please or appease their gods. If being sacrificed for our sins was the single detail that the mission of Jesus’ first coming to earth entailed, it could have easily taken place when he was a baby.

But a baby could not have faced all the temptations that humans do. Jesus was required to face what a child, a teenager, a young man, and a fully mature man faces. To identify with humans, He was tempted with every kind of temptation to sin but never yielded to sin.

Galatians 5:19-21 (NLT) lists sins of the flesh as “sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.” Temptations to these and all other kinds of sin were what Jesus was intentionally exposed to.

The temptations were intensified in the wilderness when Satan himself tempted Jesus.

Instead of ever doing what seemed pleasing to Himself in the moment, Jesus lived every one of His moments to only please His Father.

Communion

Precious Jesus. As I hold this bread representing Your body, I thank You for never giving in to the temptation to sin. Not even once. Thank You for living perfectly in Your body. Thank You for Your perfect blood as well. Today I praise You for staying pure.

Additional Scriptures to Consider

Luke 2:51-52 NLT; 4:1-13 NLT; John 12:49 NLT; Hebrews 2:17-18 NLT