Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Daily Gospel Devotional: April 12

Matthew 13:34-35 / Mark 4:33-34…

Do you hear Him…

Have you ever tried to explain something but no matter how hard you tried, the other person just didn’t get it? Have you ever been the “other person”, where someone else did everything they could to try and make you understand something, but it just didn’t make sense to you? You may have understood it intellectually, but not experientially. You just couldn’t apply it.

Have you been having a hard time wanting to read, or a hard time understanding the scriptures? Have they not been “speaking to you” very much lately, or ever? Well, Jesus, in this whole section of scripture, has been teaching us that we cannot “hear” Him unless we are willing to “have” Him, to follow Him, to worship Him, to listen and to live out what He is saying to us and teaching us. “…he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.

“…to his own disciples he explained everything.” Have you ever been trying to learn something, and having a very hard time, but then one day you read, hear, or otherwise find something that makes it all come together? What would have happened if you hadn’t been there to see that thing on that day? You would have continued in frustration. God wants you to continue to follow Him, even when it doesn’t seem to make sense, because eventually, if you keep following Him, there will come a point when it all comes together.

Yes, there are things in scripture that are easier to understand, and easier to digest than others, but what I am talking about is something else. I am speaking about being able to know these things, not just by a mental grasp, but by an experiential power. Jesus is teaching us in His Word that we must commit and continue to follow Him, and then we will experience the explanation for ourselves, we will know that we know that we know (John 8:30-32). If you turn back from His Word, you will turn back into someone who is having a hard time hearing. Instead of travelling with Jesus, you will travel a path that goes from apathy, to abandonment, and finally to an antagonism of God’s Word (Amos 8:11-14).

Sometimes we can be listening, but we just aren’t hearing what someone else is saying. Are you on the road of hearing?

5 comments:

MrsEvenSo... said...

Be sure to stay on the road of hearing and you will never grow deaf.

Father, give us ears to hear what your Spirit has to say to us, the church.

Even So... said...

A flat tire of the ear...

MrsEvenSo... said...

with no spare?

Even So... said...

No "air", as in the breath of the Holy Spirit...

MrsEvenSo... said...

Amen!