Daily Reading: Luke 18
Scripture Focus: They understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. (Luke 18.34)
Devotional Thought: Have you ever heard the phrase “selective hearing”? I like to use that term when describing how my 4-year-old daughter listens to me (and sometimes the 6-year-old and the 8-year-old girls too!). There have been times I have wondered if she genuinely couldn’t hear what I was telling her to do, but then I say the word “candy” and she comes running to me with her little hand out. Cancel the hearing test and acknowledge the problem is deeper than that.
I wonder how Jesus felt as he predicted his own death, in shocking detail, to his closest friends and followers – for the third time! – and had it fall on deaf ears. Luke wrote these accounts sometime around 60 AD, some 30 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. He had some time to reflect on what had happened and how it had all come together, and more importantly his eyes and ears were open to what was previously “hidden” from the twelve apostles. As Luke wrote, was he amazed at their “selective hearing”?
They certainly didn’t want to hear what Jesus was telling them. The long-awaited and often-prophesied Jewish Messiah was to save all of Israel. In their minds, this amounted to a victory of God’s chosen people over their oppressors (Rome, at this time) – a military conquering or a government overthrow. Jesus’ humiliation, pain, and death did not figure into their plans. But, the Creator’s plan was so much greater than their created minds could conceived.
The Creator's plan is greater than anything you can conceive as well. Are you missing out because of your selective hearing?
Jenny
Prayer: Lord, sometimes I have a hearing problem that's really a heart problem. Change my heart, O God, and thereby heal my selective hearing. In Jesus name, amen.
Psalm of the Day: 1 With my voice I cry out to the LORD; with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD. 2 I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him. 3 When my spirit faints within me, you know my way! In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me. 4 Look to the right and see: there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul. 5 I cry to you, O LORD; I say, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living." 6 Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low! Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me! 7 Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name! The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me. (Psalms 142:1-7)
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