Listening is an art that most people never master.  It doesn’t come just with having open ears.  Listening comes with not only hearing, but with trusting that the person speaking is speaking the truth.  And it also enables those of us who listen to discern when untruths are spoken.  In our contemporary times, when some people are more willing to speak than to listen, they’ve often thought of their response to what someone is saying before the person has finished saying it.  They’ve cut off any ability or willingness to understand or actively hear what’s being said because they’ve already predetermined what someone is going to say. 

         I wonder if that happens when God is speaking.  Do we cut God and the wisdom of the Spirit off before God has finished speaking to us.  Already in our culture, some people are tempted not to listen to Jesus.  They hear what he says, but because it doesn’t agree with their politics or their socio-cultural understanding of the world around them, they have chosen not to listen.  The temptations to listen to our friends and acquaintances, or our political party rather than Jesus is great.  But it also prevents us from listening to Jesus as God instructed us.  And with that, comes a separation from God and the community of believers that prevents us from becoming the extraordinary people God is calling us to be.

• What difficulties do you encounter when trying to listen to everything Jesus tells you?
• Do you often find yourself and what you prefer getting in the way of truly hearing him?
• What can a person do to be more open to “Listening to Jesus”?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
God of Wisdom, open my ears that I may not only hear You speak, but that I may hear as one who is truly listening to Your voice.

         Our minds and spirits are drawn to the extraordinary.  We marvel at the spectacular, often excited about that which we haven’t seen or experienced before.  It’s even more special when that which is truly extraordinary catches us by surprise.  We tend to become numbed to often repeated experiences, but when it happens to us for the first time, we remain captivated.  If it’s extraordinary enough, we’ll try to memorialize the event by creating something special to remember it by.  In our day and age, we have gone from building monuments to special events and resorted to the selfie — something we can share with others to revisit and celebrate over and over again.

         And yet, what if our extraordinary event involves someone else who doesn’t want it known that they were involved — not because their necessarily hiding their participation in the event from everyone else, but because there’s something bigger and better and more extraordinary that’s coming where the focus is not so much on them, but on you (us).

         What temptation is it that tempts us to remain quiet about who we are?  Is it our humility?  Is it our fear of living up to what others expect us to be?  Or perhaps it’s because we are — in some ways — unaware of who we really are.  Or perhaps we’re not aware of who God is calling us to be.  We think of the disciples seeing Jesus transfigured and being tempted to memorialize the event and then being told not to tell anyone.  The event was extraordinary, but perhaps not as extraordinary as the event that allows his spirit to live within us — for the express purpose of enabling others to see Christ transfigured by our lives.  That the life of one God/Man, Jesus, could be so enlightening that even after his death his radiance could shine in us, is one of the most extraordinary things there is.  His light alive in us is what makes us extraordinary.  But don’t tell anyone.  Just let his extraordinary light shine in you for others to see.

• Had you ever considered that one of the tempting temptations is to not allow Christ’s light to shine in us?
• What could you do to fight the temptation to hide the glory of Christ in you?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, Your glory has been revealed to Your disciples. Keep me from being tempted to hide Your glory shining in me form others so that they may come to know You as God’s beloved Son.

         It is God’s nature to take care of us.  And our faith perspective never says much about guardian angels.  And yet, for all that angels (guardian or otherwise) might do to protect us, it’s important for us to remember that those ministering spirits only function at the direction of God.  It’s easy for us to get swept up in the study of angelology — searching for the powers that have protective oversight for us.  And yet, that, too, is a distraction.  It’s a distraction designed to take our attention off of the one true God who has power and authority over everyone and everything.

         We’re tempted by our curiosity to search for the spiritual meaning behind angels and God in an effort to grow in our understanding of spiritual matters.  But the most important spiritual matter is that our temptation to search beyond our humanity and the events that protect us will always end with God’s love and compassion for us.  Whether we believe in angels, or not, the one to whom God said, “Sit at my right hand … “ will always be our most powerful protector.  Jesus sits at the right hand of the father to shield us from spiritual temptations and to protect us from death and offer us life eternal.

If you’ve ever been led to believe in guardian angels assigned to protect us, what stopped your belief or prompted your belief?

If they are simply agents of God, what does that mean for your faith journey?

Since angels are lower than Christ, who is really our protector?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, continue to use whatever means You have to protect me from harm. Keep me mindful that You are my Jehovah Jireh — my provider, and that You have protected me by the power of Christ.