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 this prayer based on Psalm 128:1

LORD, I stand in awe of You.
I long to hear Your Word to me today
so that I may lovingly obey You.
Speak Lord, I am listening. Amen.

Reading

Luke 11:27-28

Moved by deep emotion, a woman following Jesus, who saw His great works and listened to His amazing words, called out a blessing on His mother. It seems like a lovely thing to say, and a harmless compliment which it might be quite natural for one mother to pay to another.

But Jesus, recognised the risk of believing that those related to Him by His birth are somehow specially positioned for blessing. So He brought a gentle and respectful correction.

The words He used are not rude or dismissive. In fact, the Greek word Jesus used to correct her statement was, “menoun“, and it was a way affirming while also heightening a preceding statement. Rather than negating or contradicting what came before, it redirected the attention to what is even more decisive. It was a way of steering the listener’s thoughts towards a fuller or truer perspective. In common South African English Jesus might have said, “Yes, you’re right, BUT even more blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

Mary was indeed blessed to have had the privilege of bearing Jesus and raising Him, but don’t miss the fact that she was only in that position in the first place because she had heard the Lord’s Word coming to her through the angel Gabriel and had responded with obedient surrender to God, saying, ‘I am the Lord’s servant, May your word to me be fulfilled.’ Her obedience had positioned her for blessing.

Likewsie, don’t miss the fact that Jesus had already told people in Luke 8:21, ‘My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.’

As blessed as Mary was in raising Jesus, we are even more blessed than her if we will listen to His words and obey them! Perhaps we need to hear this strong word of encouragement from Jesus in light of the fact that we are spending all year searching for “everything Jesus commanded us”. Knowing what He commanded us is a blessed place to be … but even more blessed is the place of obeying what He commanded us.

So let us listen and let us obey!

Contemplation

Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn this declaration over and over in your mind. Keep it in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ:

• I will not only search to know His commands, I will live in daily obedience to them.

Holy Spirit, please give me the grace to listen to Jesus not simply for intellectual knowledge, but in order to obey Him. Amen.