As I come before You tonight, Father, and have some music playing, this is the song I hear…
You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship Thee (As the Deer base on Psalm 42)
And it is more than enough…
Luke 9:44-45 (<<click to read the passage)
Have you ever had a job where you were responsible to train someone? If so, then you are aware that several contributing factors would make that an easy job or a difficult one.
One difficult hurdle is if the trainee already thinks they know everything there is to know about what you have to tell them. Or perhaps they just have preconceived notions as to what the job entails. Of course, there are many ways to do certain things and though we may think we know and understand them all, we can quickly realize that much of what we thought we knew was off a little or totally off base!
When Jesus clearly told his disciples what His future held (for the second time, no less!) Luke tells us that “they didn’t know what he meant. Its significance was hidden from them, so they couldn’t understand it…” v45 NLT (emphasis mine)
The Gospels run parallel on many points, and this is one of them. We’ve looked at this problem of the disciples before – they had their own ideas about who the Messiah would be (and as we’ll see in the next few verses, they were also concerned how they would fit into it all!) But regarding things being hidden, there’s a good chance that even we didn’t catch them because of our preconceived notions.
Preconceived notions are some of the biggest obstacles that we must strive to overcome when grasping God’s Word but there are several “notions” that fall into that category.
- I don’t need to read this; I’ve read it before
Over the years I have gone through the Bible several times (See Wide and Deep) but honestly, there is always something new!
It is because of the Lord’s lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great and beyond measure is Your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23 (AMP)
Of course, that passage refers to God’s lovingkindness to us, but don’t you think the Word He has given us is just one more sign of that love? So hold fast to the truth that His Word for us is new every morning. Read it…ponder on it…read it some more…pray over it…listen…He will speak!
- This is too hard to understand, I’m not even going to try.
Now I would never encourage anyone wanting to begin reading the Bible regularly, to begin with Leviticus or the Book of Revelation – they both are a lot to struggle through. Begin with things that are impacting but still relatively easy to read. The Gospels, for example, give us a great opportunity to get to know Jesus better. They all contain His life and teachings but all from a different perspective. Each author, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, wrote to a different audience – Matthew to the Jewish population, Mark to the Christians in Rome, Luke to the Gentiles (Theophilus, in particular), and John, probably the best to start with, since he was writing to new Christians and searching non-Christians.
Don’t let preconceived notions hinder you from getting into the Word. And most importantly as the old Gaither song goes, “I heard you’re into the word / Getting into the word / But is the word getting into you?”
Apr 23rd, 2020, Thurs, 7:58 pm
And just in case you’re curious…
Into the Word from the Passin’ the Faith Along album, released April 1983 and yes, that is a 26-year-old Steve Green!
