Luke 8:18 “Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.”

This is on the one hand encouraging, and on the other hand scary. At issue is our capacity for deceiving ourselves. Jesus has just told the very important parable of the seed and the soil, and then He says this. He has just expressed that His disciples had been “given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God,” (verse 10) and here He says they will be given more. Hallelujah! However, the scary part is that when we think we have “deep understanding,” but actually don’t, however much understanding we actually have will be taken away. We see that all around us. The “intellectual elites” who think they know how best how to run things for everyone else have, in their hubris, lost all common sense. That’s very obvious in the secular, political world, but it’s sadly true in the Church as well. It is essential that we grasp, on the deepest level, that “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) The moment we think we have all the answers here on earth, we lose hold of the truth that God has for us. I think the key is in applying God’s truth personally in our own life, before we go setting ourselves up as the experts for everyone else. As James famously said, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22) When we apply God’s truth in faithful humility, He pours more and more into us. It is when we think, “I’ve got this,” that we suddenly discover we have nothing at all.

I am a textbook illustration of this. Having grown up in the home that I did, absorbing Scriptural truth even from the womb, by the time I hit 20 I thought I could go head-to-head with any theologian and come out on top. And of course, that made me the best Christian ever! However, not long after I turned 24, the Lord mercifully tapped me on the shoulder and, when I turned, showed me a mirror, for just an instant, and I collapsed, realizing I had nothing apart from the grace of God. I quote that experience fairly often, because I have to remind myself that God’s smart and I’m not, and there is far more that I don’t know than I do know. I’m not to hold back the truth God has spoken to me, because as Jesus said in verse 16, the light He’s given me is for the benefit of those around me, but I’m never to think I have all the light, and I’m to be diligent in applying what I have been given.

Father, thank You for this reminder. I need it often! Thank You for getting us through the past couple of days, and for how things are falling into place in various areas. It is joy indeed to be used by You to bless others! May I listen to You carefully, so that Your Words may indeed accomplish everything for which You send them, (Isaiah 55:10-11) for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!