Get Understanding

May 12th, 2025

SCRIPTURE: “For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.” Matthew 13:15

I once heard on a Christian radio program that some souls have heard the Gospel message clearly presented to them at least twenty times, and still they refuse to receive Christ as personal Lord and Savior! Some may ask why would anyone refuse to trust in Christ Jesus--the One who declared Himself as being “the way, the truth, and the life?” (John. 14:6) Pride perhaps? A sense of false contentment with their true spiritual condition? Misplaced faith in church membership, baptism, family lineage, or even confidence in their own self-defined righteousness? All of these reasons describe many souls today that are complacent in what our God describes as ignorance. (Acts 17:23; Romans 10:3; Ephesians 4:17, 18) Roget’s Thesaurus includes the following words as synonyms of ignorance: unawareness, obliviousness, unenlightenment, confusion, lack of perception. Today’s Scripture verse suggests a willful blindness or ignorance as defined by the Greek word for ignorant, used in Ephes. 4:18, “agnoia,”

The pursuit of understanding is of paramount importance to God! It is a prevalent theme throughout much of the Book of Proverbs. While it must be understood that only the Holy Spirit can open one’s eyes to perceive their need of salvation through faith in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, we who’ve been found by the Lord God-- who’ve been blessed by His imputed righteousness-- do well to recall the truth about salvation that’s found in Romans 9:16. This verse, along with several others in the New Testament, can clear up our occasional perplexity over the so-called “complacency” of the lost: “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” In light of these realities, let us continue to pray for ourselves and our lost loved ones who stand in need of the Savior God’s great salvation!

PRAYER: Dear Father, in humble and thankful recognition of His coming into this world to deliver all who would receive by faith the Bread of Heaven, Christ Jesus, as personal Lord and Savior, delivering us from our lost condition, we love and praise You! In Jesus’ precious name. Amen!
By Sis. Denise Diggs