October 5 - Listen Up

 Read today’s texts first: Esther 3-8; Luke 18

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

Sometimes we blame God for not speaking,
but the problem is we’re not listening. 

How did they miss it?  I knew Jesus had forewarned His disciples about His impending death, but I thought that He intentionally obscured it, so they’d have to dig a little deeper.  But then I read the Luke account once more and it was in-your-face obvious:

Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again.” But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said. (18:31-34)

Uhm, why not!?  How dense can they be?  In the next chapter they will be welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, fully expecting Him to take His reign over the Romans.  When that didn’t happen, they were devastated and demoralized.  How did they not know!

Then I think about my own life.  There have been countless times when God told me something and I quickly blocked it out.  It’s like half my conversations with my wife.  I have my preconceptions of what she should say which becomes the filter through which I hear what she actually does say.  It’s not till afterwards that I finally get it – when the doorbell rings with 30 people at my door and it dawns on me, “oh the party is tonight!”

“Lord, give me ears to not only hear but to actually listen to what You’re saying to me today.”