Everyday we are thankful for God's presence with us and God's promises to us!
PRAY and give thanks to God for His faithful presence with us this morning! Ask for Him to speak to you again.
REFLECT
Lots of parables here, and a lot to digest! The cumulative effect of all these parables is this: I'm challenged in how much I really want to understand and learn about God's Kingdom and about God! What kind of student/disciples are you? Do you study for the grade, learning enough and retaining just long enough to do well on the test, but then letting it all leave your consciousness after you answer the questions correctly? Or do you study to know the subject, letting it sink in deeper, into your consciousness, enough so that you can interact with it, see how it actually impacts your life, and even sharing your knowledge with a friend when a related topic comes up in conversation? What kind of student of Jesus are you? Jesus talked about seeing and not seeing, hearing and not hearing, lest they "understand with their heart" (15). This describes the approach that many of us have, a very superficial, cursory reading of Jesus' words. That's amazing! The people here didn't just have a great teacher in front of them, one who spoke with authority that was unlike any other they'd heard before. They actually had God the Son in front of them, and still many of them didn't get it. How does that compare with us today?
RESPOND
This is not just a call to study harder! No, because it's not about bad study habits. The problem here is a heart problem, and fixing that isn't about more discipline. Fixing the heart problem is about becoming more humble. How do you change your attitude toward your teacher, your subject, or your Book? How do you grow in appreciation of the lessons that are being taught? It's not about getting better at studying! It's about recognizing, with the help of the Holy Spirit, how utterly helpless we are without Jesus. It's asking God to change our hearts and minds so that we can really grasp the Gospel - we sin(ned) but Jesus loves us! Ask God to help you study the person, not the page. Maybe it's a good day to read the Bible while kneeling.
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