Monday 23 Jul 2018

July 23: Luke 9:43-48

Key Verse: Luke 9:45
But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.

Devotion:
We can look back on this passage and see exactly what Christ was talking about and understand it. John, when he wrote this, then understood it too; but whilst the disciples were there at the time, they did not understand what was going to happen to Christ. We can look back and think thoughts like “if only they asked the right questions, things may have been different”; but then that is thinking on our level and thinking as a human. Whilst we are way above any other creature in terms of intellect, we still have a whole lot to learn about our own lives.

Christ would continually say how we should approach Him as a child because it is a child that comes with open arms, ears and mind. When we have spent a long time in this world we can become cynical about the world and about the people who surround us, blocking out many good things simply because of the amount of garbage we have had to put up with in our lives so far. As we grow older we tend to turn things down as sounding too good to be true and put them to one side. On the other hand, a child would gladly accept things that sound good. As a child we probably grabbed everything which came our way and learned from each thing. Sometimes the learning was a good experience and others not so good, but each step gave us more of an idea about what we can expect in the future. But if we continue to be faced with bad experiences, our outlook will become decidedly one-sided!

Christ wants each of us to put aside our pre-conceived ideas that we may already hold and come to Him with open arms and an open mind. Without that we may well reject the truth before we actually hear it all. It is a wise person who is willing to pick up God’s Word and read it to find out more. God is the one who wants all of us to find out the truth. Satan is the one who wants each of us to be polluted with so much we ignore the truth when we are faced with it… The best way of finding out the truth is by asking the one who created the truth in the beginning – don’t be afraid to ask!

Points to Ponder:
How biased would you say your life is?

Do you accept God’s Word or continue to question it?