Friday Devo

Read Luke 11:33-36. This is a difficult passage to understand. I had to read several notes on it before it made sense to me. The meaning becomes more clear when we tie this passage to yesterday's passage. The crowds asking for a sign had been given many signs. Jesus had not hidden his lamp but put it on a stand sort of speak. The problem were the eyes of the people were not good. They could not see what Jesus had been doing already proved who he was. The darkness in them kept them from seeing the light.

v. 35 - If the light in us is not darkness we can take in God and see who he is. It has been said that more people are not atheist because they truly don't believe in God. The truth is - they don't want to believe in God because they want to live their immoral life their way. Their lusts and greed keep their eyes are bad - they can't see God. They can witness a miracle and completely miss the goodness of God.

The problem of course when one chooses not to take God into their life is expressed by vs. 34 "when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness." Without God coming in we are full of the greed, jealousy, anger and other problems that control us. 

As Christians a good application here is to watch for hardening of the heart. We don't just wake up one day and say - I've had enough God. It comes in the big wounds of life and the slow poisoning of unchecked thoughts that oppose the creator. Like a callous builds so our heart can put off repentance, check ups and gather layers of hardness. Proverbs 4:23 says, "above all else guard your heart for it is the well spring of life." This fits exactly with what Jesus is saying - when our heart is bad it affects our whole life - its all dark.

Hebrews 3:13, "Be encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Sin deceives - then it hardens - then the callous comes and we can't see Jesus when he's right in front of  us. The truth is all of us probably have some calloused parts of our heart that have been calloused so long we don't recognize it anymore. That's the tough thing with deception - YOU CAN'T SEE IT!

Notice also Paul's method for overcoming deception - Encourage one another - DAILEY. No wonder we live bound and calloused - we are lacking in being an encouragment and being encouraged. Encouragement comes in many forms - often acceptance and affirmation but sometimes accountability and authority. The Holy Spirit will guide us in all truth to use these!

questions

1) what is an area of your life that use to be hard but the Lord has softened?

2) if deception is something we can't see - and its the primary tactic of the enemy - how do we stand our ground against sin?

3) Can you encourage someone to live more for Jesus every day the rest of this week? (Simply accepting the lonely, affirming the good in others, keeping the struggling accountable, and applying authority where the Lord leads) You never know whose heart you may be help keeping from getting hard!

prayer

Father let our eyes be good. We repent of wanting to run our life - our money, our home, our career, our church. We know you're a better leader - teach us to trust you even when it doesn't make as much sense. We do believe that letting you in makes our whole life a light to others and keeping you out leads to much darkness throughout our life. Encourage us Lord so we can encourage others to let more of you in! Let us walk in a matter worthy of you Lord. Let us be fruitful in every work, increasing in our knowledge of God and strengthened with all power!