Dave's Diary

Prayer

Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray the prayer of Psalm 25:4-5

Show me your ways, Lord,
teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Saviour,
and my hope is in you all day long..
Amen.

Reading

Matthew 23:13-22

In Matthew 23, Jesus confronted the religious leaders with the truth about the sins that were keeping them – and, through them, keeping others – from the kingdom of God. If He sounds harsh, that’s because He was speaking brutally honestly in an attempt to get them to realise the spiritual danger facing them. His honesty was born of His loving desire to see even these religious men repent, turn away from their path of self-deception, and be saved!

We would do well to realise that sometimes the most loving thing to do is to confront someone honestly about those things that we can plainly see are keeping them from experiencing the Kingdom of God. But remember yesterday’s truth. This is always to be done from a place of deep, deep humility! And we should always check our hearts first, to ensure that we are truly motivated by love and nothing else.

If we are to hear this passage humbly, we also need to put ourselves in the shoes of the religious leaders and check our own lives in the same mirror Jesus held up to them:

• Do I hypocritically put on the outward appearance of Christianity, but remain uncommitted to Jesus Christ in my heart of hearts? (v.13)
• Am I more committed to convincing others that I am right in my beliefs, than to inviting them to join me on the journey towards deeper relationship with God through repentance and the humble, honest pursuit of Truth? (v.15)
• Do I find creative ways to twist the “truth” to my advantage, disregarding the life-giving power of actual Truth to set me and others free? (v.16-22)

What ties the above three questions together is the fact that, in each of them, Jesus calls us to the honest pursuit of the truth about ourselves, God, and our relationship with God, and He warns us that avoiding the truth puts us and others in grave spiritual danger.

Contemplation

Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn one or more of these declarations over and over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ:

• I will humbly pursue the Truth.
• I will humbly invite others to join me in this pursuit..
• I will humbly live and speak in line with the truth.

Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life, may Your Holy Spirit lead me into all truth today. Amen.