Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – October 26, 2019
“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” Luke 16:30-31
You and I have been gifted with incredible witnesses to our Christian faith. Not only do we have the story of God’s people in the Old and New Testaments, we have the witness of saints over thousands of years who have faithfully embodied the self-giving love of Jesus in ways that are meant to inspire and encourage us to do the same. And yet, in each and every age, people must decide if they have ears to hear the words of Jesus spoken to them.
Can you hear the voice of the Master calling you? Is your heart receptive to the message of his gospel? If we take the time for honest self-reflection, we realize that it is so easy for us to be hardened to the truth. We can sear our souls by inattentiveness to the work of the Spirit and deep seated selfishness that turns us away from the ones we love and from the love of the Lord.
In the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man, this is the rich man’s ultimate undoing- he is hardened to the point that he fails to discern where God can be heard and found. If he were to search for God, he would be convinced that God is to be found in power, success, affluence, and riches. Yet that journey will only leave us empty and more lost than when we started!
We must seek out Jesus in the places he has promised to meet us. Jesus is a friend of sinners, rest for the weary, and near to the downhearted and outcast. As such, we must go and find him in the faces of the poor and neglected, and most difficultly, to see in them our own story and our own desperation. Though we spend much of our lives trying to insulate ourselves from our frailty and convince ourselves we are fine in and of ourselves, the Lord in his kindness invites us daily to embrace our weakness and hear his word afresh to us: “Your sins are many, but my mercy is more.”
Prayer
Father, we join our hearts today with the ancient prayer of the Church: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
Application
Where is your life overly focused on your own wants, needs, and desires? How is this focus keeping you from hearing the voice of the Lord to you afresh?
Related Reading
Deuteronomy 4:31; Luke 1:50; Ephesians 2:4
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