Today’s readings: Click on today’s date at http://www.usccb.org/bible/
Words of Jesus
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Thursday of the First Week of Lent
Matthew 7:7
Jesus said, “Ask and it shall be given to you.”
Janis Joplin might have been a little cynical (or maybe not) when she sang, “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz?” Was there a black CL-Class in front of her door the next morning?
Nope. Probl’y not. Jesus didn’t mean we’re entitled to anything we want. In fact, after these generous ask-seek-knock verses, he adds that God – good Father that he is – knows whether our requests are for bread or for stones and always gives us the bread. Then Jesus warns us about the narrow gate, through which only a few pass. He says we will be tempted by false prophets, and we’ll think we’re disciples when we’re not. We’ll be thrown off course any number of ways on any number of days.
Jesus promises us God’s goodness and God’s gifts. And our job is simple: hear Jesus’ words and put them into practice. Then at the end of it all we can look back and say, as Jesus says, “The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”
Janis wanted her fancy car … I want to visit far countries … you want … We all want stuff. Jesus does promise us some really good stuff – God’s stuff. But his focus, over and over and over, is on us listening to his words and practicing them in our lives. Our everyday lives, the lives where we don’t get fancy cars or unlimited credit cards for travel, where things that look very bad to us might happen instead.
Still, listen to the words. Do the works. Don’t stop. Build our houses on the Rock.
Lord, I wish there were inflections written into the scripture accounts of your talks. And I wish we could see you smile and frown, and laugh and cry. Instead we will imagine it, Lord, how you stand among the people in the spring breeze, sun warm on all our heads, sharing the words of life and knowing how hard it is for us to live them. But insisting that we do it anyway. Thanks, Jesus, for not making it easy on us, for not being indulgent, but loving us deep and deep and deep, and never giving up on any one of us. Never.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1340
