The Kingdom’s Action Plan – Part VII
Key Verse: Luke 11:28
He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
Additional Reading: Luke 11:24-28
Continuing our thoughts from yesterday’s devotion, I want to study the last part of Jesus’ words that He spoke after the woman interrupted His teaching.
If you read yesterday’s devotion, you know His first statement was how blessed anyone will be to hear God’s Word. But Jesus quickly added a statement that is crucial: if we want blessings from God “and obey it [God’s Word]” (Luke 11:28b).
The crowd Jesus was talking to didn’t realize how far-reaching Jesus’ teaching would someday be. One organization has estimated that 6.5 billion people have heard of Jesus. And it is estimated by that same organization that 98% of the world’s population already has heard of Jesus (source: www.quora.com).
However, Jesus understood that if people don’t go from hearing what He taught to doing what He taught, they are still very lost.
When I use the word “obey”, I am thinking that we must sincerely practice our obedience. I know the answer to how many people obey Jesus’ teachings perfectly… no one! Jesus Himself is one who learned obedience: “Even though Jesus was God’s Son, He learned obedience from the things He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). The “human” part of Jesus was learning to obey by the things He suffered. Thus the Hebrew writer goes on to say: “In this way, God qualified Him as a perfect High Priest, and He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9).
Do we learn from our suffering, as well? Yes, eventually we will learn from our suffering if we don’t walk away from the battle of learning. Learning obedience is hard. This battle of our will verses God’s will leads to learning or leaving the journey God wants to take us on!
We read an example of those who chose to leave the journey in the Gospel of John: “Many of His disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?” (John 6:60). Then, just six verses later: At this point many of His disciples turned away and deserted Him (John 6:66). If you go read that whole passage, you’ll see that Jesus knew that these disciples who ultimately left him never really believed in Him or His teaching.
If we give up and leave the journey it’s obvious that we have stopped believing that Jesus is right and worthy to be followed! True believers won’t live out all Jesus’ teachings perfectly, but they know that Jesus’ teachings are all true and they never stop trying to get them into their lifestyles!
Father, I’m not perfect but I’ll never stop trying to do better! In Jesus’s Name, amen.