“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the
first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I
will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other
son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of
the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to
them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the
kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness,
and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes
believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds
and believe him. (Mattew 21:28-32)
This really stands
out to me because of how many revisions I need to make to my “On This Day
Sharing” (the box to the left) just to make it fit into the space! So often I
need to rewrite a “brilliant” introduction simply because it takes up too much
room for a personal application. But Jesus always made every word count, and
without any editorial requirements!
Today this captured
my attention with Jesus’ question, “What do you think?” It was his segue from
their confrontational question, “By what authority are you doing these things,
and who gave you this authority?” to what he wanted to focus on about them.
What captivated me
was how his question set the stage for them to listen. They came challenging
him in a way that turned the spotlight all on him. He answered with a question
that put the spotlight all the way back on them, and then he immediately used
another question to set the stage for the next exposé of their hearts.
The application for
me is that I realized this is the way God relates to me in my morning time with
him. He asks me (figuratively speaking), “Monte, how are you doing?” And when I’ve
done my morning admitting, he then opens his word to me and says, “Monte, what
do you think?”
And then, for the
rest of my time with him, it is like I am looking at him looking at me waiting
for me to see for myself what I think so he can then use the “teaching,
reproving, correcting, and training in righteousness” of his word to continue
transforming me into his own image “from one degree of glory to another”.
If I could contribute to people learning to truly attach to God with a morning time in his word and prayer, I would encourage you to always begin by telling God how you are doing, and then read whatever is next in his word like he is asking you, “What do you think?” The way this sets the stage for us to “hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches” is… well… GENIUS!
Why Jesus was a GENIUS | Dr. Peter Williams | Heart of a Man
© 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.)
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