Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Psalms 33-35
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Matthew 13:11-17
Jesus: The knowledge of the secrets of heaven has been given to you, but it has not been given to them. Those who have something will be given more—and they will have abundance. Those who have nothing will lose what they have—they will be destitute. I teach in parables so the people may look but not see, listen but not hear or understand. They are fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy:
You will listen, but you will not understand;
you will look, but you will not see.
The people’s hearts have turned to flab;
their ears are clogged;
their eyes are shut.
They will try to see, but they will not see;
they will try to hear, but they will not hear;
they will try to understand, but they will not comprehend.
If they, with their blindness and deafness, so choose, then I will heal them.
Many holy prophets and righteous men and women and people of prayer and doers of good have wanted to see but did not see, and have wanted to hear but did not hear. Your eyes and ears are blessed.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Maybe you’ve asked yourself or God the same question the disciples asked Jesus that day. Why do you speak to the people in parable? Why do spiritual things sometimes seem to be hidden from us? Why does it seem that some of your teachings are so misunderstood today? Why don’t you make yourself known clearly to the world so everyone will know you are God? Why don’t you perform the signs and miracles today in your church so that everyone will know that you are the only way to heaven? Why is all of this clouded in our minds to some extent?
We have a lot of questions as to why God just doesn’t blast us with His voice, signs and wonders in the sky, the kinds of things we read in the Old Testament, to help all the world understand exactly who He is and how we should worship Him. We wonder why God doesn’t make all of this as plain as the nose on your face so everyone can understand it and stop the fighting among religious factions and everyone become Christians immediately.
Although I don’t pretend to understand the enormity of the mind of God, I think there are some answers to those questions that we can explore. First, we need to understand that God doesn’t hide from us. He wants us to find Him and know Him. It is His will that all would come to know His saving grace. He created us to love and worship Him. At the same time, He wants our voluntary love. Love that is coerced isn’t love. There may be an appearance of love, but it isn’t genuine. So He wants us to seek Him. He wants to know that we want a relationship with Him.
Second, God isn’t like Waldo. He doesn’t make it difficult to find Him. But we must exercise faith in Him to find Him. We must recognize He is God. And that is the problem most of us have until we acknowledge just how broken, depraved, and sinful we are. We want our way instead of His. We want to pretend we know what is best for us instead of bowing to our Creator. So until we acknowledge God is God and we are not, we will have difficulty finding Him.
Third, Satan, the father of lies, has been at his business for a long time. He has plagued humanity since he first tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and convinced them that God didn’t mean what He said about the trees in the middle of the garden. Satan is a master at deception and has pulled a veil over our eyes. We can’t see the truth in front of us because we believe the lies he has told us through the years. We let him feed us those lies so consistently that we think they are the truth instead of listening to God’s words.
But if we will open our minds and hearts to God’s word, if we will exercise just a little faith in Him, if we will recognize that He is God and we are not, He will open up His word to us and make Himself known to us. He doesn’t hide. But like the objects in those hidden picture puzzles, once you see the object, you can’t help but see them every time you look at them. So it is with God. Once you exercise just a little faith and recognize who He is, you see Him in all His glory. You recognize the truth of His word. You see the power of His Spirit in the world. You begin to see His handiwork around you. His miracles unfold around you and He is evident everywhere.
God doesn’t hide from us, but we must open our eyes of faith to see Him. God doesn’t make His word obscure, but we must let His Spirit speak to us through His word and trust Him to open His truth to us. God makes plain who He is to those who are ready to listen. But to those who refuse, like the object in the hidden picture puzzles, you’ll have a hard time finding Him. Isn’t it time to open your eyes of faith?
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