Thursday 21 Jul 2022

July 21: Matthew 13:10-17

Key Verse: Matthew 13:17
For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

Devotion:
The majority of us will not see physical miracles happen before our very eyes, and that seems to be a problem for many of us – how are we going to believe something unless we see it with our own eyes! For Christian, we see and feel what God is doing in many people’s lives and our faith is built up in stages… it is because of our belief in Christ we get to know these things.

But for many who do not make that first step of joining that longing in their lives to belief in Christ, the words in our bibles and the words from Christian friends do not make sense to them. This is what we are fighting against as disciples of Christ; we fight an unseen barrier which is bolstered by unbelief and worldly sayings and deeds.

Jesus knew who was going to come to Him and He knew who would continue to live their lives in unbelief – we don’t have the luxury of anything like that! So we should try to open the gospel to all who are willing to listen. But we should do it in a manner like Christ did. If we go out all guns blazing, we may be giving the unbelievers ammunition for their unbelief by them thinking we are some sort of cult or worse!

Jesus talked openly to people in parables. This would mean the people who did not want to believe would not have direct ammunition to shout out against the Christians, but those who did want to find out more would come to realise what the parables meant and that would give them hope.

Points to Ponder:
Have you thought about how you talk to others about Christ?

Will you try something different to give people hope?