Hardened

My biggest request during my prayer times has been that I would "get it" more. I feel so unmoved by the things of God, it's rather frustrating. How is it that I can read the Scripture so often, and yet walk away so unchanged by it's words? There is a disconnect that I struggle with, so I continually ask the Lord to reveal Himself more fully to me (one of the first things that I think creates that divide is using "far-off" phrases like the Lord, which makes Him seem way out yonder somewhere... that's another topic for another day).

Today I received a little more light on the topic that I believe we all desperately need to take hold of. Jesus explained in Mark 4 that the single-most important parable He taught was the parable of the sower. He said that it was the foundation for His entire teaching ministry. What we see in this parable is that the first reason why the Word of God is so unproductive in our hearts is that we are hardened to it, thus allowing the enemy quick and easy access to steal it. What we do not realize is that we are often that hard soil. This does not mean that we are calloused, unfeeling, wicked people, but that our hearts are hard towards spiritual things. Our Western way of thinking has hardened us to spiritual laws. Paul describes this condition in the second chapter of first Corinthians, yet it still hasn't sunk in to us fully. God's ways of doing things run so counter to our understanding that we have come to dismiss them altogether. As a result, we make religious excuses for why the Bible "doesn't work," when the truth is that we didn't believe it in the first place. Theological, religious thinking has robbed us of the power of Scripture in our lives. We gloss over so many wonderful revelations about God without so much as a second-glance.

What the Lord showed me today is that we have hard spots in our hearts to specific "Word-seed." While I am by no means a gardener, I know that certain seed produces better results when planted in specific soil. Our hearts are often hardened regarding specific seeds in the Word. That is why so many of us simply do not "get it" regarding many of Scripture's promises. My Bible says over and over and over and over and over and over again that we should be rich. There is no denying that. If a Christian person does not believe it is God's will to prosper them beyond their imagination, they are either in denial or cannot read. Our lack of resources proves that we do not believe the Word of the Living God. I know I don't. I base my reading of Scripture on too many past failures. I had to repent early and often for that today. There is no denying that God wants to Bless us financially. That is why He also made a point to hammer home repeatedly to be on the look-out for greed and idolatry. He is smarter than us and knows that if we are not careful His Blessing will cause us to turn away from Him and toward the "presents." Unfortunately, it does not matter all that much, because we trust in our own jobs and means of provision, rather than in His Blessing (which makes rich - Proverbs 10:22).

God expects so much more from us - from me. But if we do not believe His Word to us, then we are going to live defeated everyday of our lives. If He says we are Blessed, we are Blessed. Believe it. He equipped us with His Spirit so that we would have a greater capacity to receive and do! (See Ephesians 3:20). But if we trust in our own means rather than His we are doomed from the beginning (See Jeremiah 17:5). If we do not believe His Word is true, then nothing will ever happen. We limit our capacity to receive from Him and walk in the life He has for us when we harden our hearts to some of the Word. That is why we do not always "get it." We do not always believe it...