On This Day: The Heart-Exposing Questions of God

 

23 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. (Matthew 21)

 

   I came to the passage above and was in awe of Jesus’ ability to always know what he wanted to do, say, or reply without any second-guessing. And, his words were always so “bull’s eye” what people needed to hear.

   However, Jesus’ genius in responding to people was not about winning arguments and debates, but always knowing what was best for people if they would only listen and learn from the Messiah.

   The box to the left is my short sharing. The long of it is that I was up early and feeling troubled about things that got stirred up yesterday. Something we had talked about in church time stirred up some painful memories and left me troubled about some things that had happened that I could do nothing about. All I will say is that it had a lot of attachment-pain and corresponding grief that left me feeling like a scab had been torn off a wound that had been healing for some time.

   This morning, as I looked at how perfectly Jesus answered his critics with a heart-exposing question, I asked Jesus what he would ask me in the same kind of heart-exposing way he did with the religious hypocrites. As I continued to prayer-journal about it, his answer felt like him asking me if I could trust him to do what would be for his glory and my/our good in the situation that was troubling me.

   As I answered that “yes” this is what I wanted, I realized that there was also an answer of “no”, in myself I couldn’t do it. Something was stuck. I needed help.

   What was amazing was that for the religious hypocrites, Jesus asking such a heart-exposing question was a bad thing and just made them look for a way to kill him. But for a child of God, asking Jesus to give such a heart-exposing question was liberating as it exposed the very thing he wanted me to trust him to do in me.

   And that part I could do, to trust him for what I cannot do!

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)