Eyes...Ears...Understand

The believer replied, “Every promise of God proves true; he protects everyone who runs to him for help. So don’t second-guess him; he might take you to task and show up your lies.” (Proverbs 30:5-6 MSG)

There are things we see with our natural eyes, then there are things we see that others are blind too, finally there are things we see with our spiritual eyes. Same goes for truth. There are things we really want to believe but doubt, there are things we believe but those things truly have no truth to them, then there are things we believe that we can not see.  

I've often wondered why seemly intelligent people believe what they believe and think its truth when it's not. Or why some have ridiculous faith and believe what is unseen. Or when everyone thinks their way is the right way. 

But I'm reminded today what was revealed to me in September 2010 after Michael's mothers death. The last verse marked in her bible & written on a piece of paper marking her spot was this: 

For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand. (Matthew 13:13 NLT)

I like the message version of this verse: 

He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again: Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing. Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing. The people are blockheads! They stick their fingers in their ears so they won’t have to listen; They screw their eyes shut so they won’t have to look, so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face and let me heal them. (Matthew 13:11-15 MSG)

I'm amazed how much truth is in this verse. Having eyes to truly see the truth, ears to truly hear the truth, and a heart to understand the truth... What a treasure indeed.  I've had plenty of times in my life when my eyes were closed to the truth, when my ears only heard the enemies voice, and when my heart was blinded to truly understand. However, after lots of lessons learned, and allowing God to truly heal the deep hurts of my heart was I finally freed to walk in His truth. I'm thankful for hard lessons, my terrible mistakes as they have helped me become the person I am today. I'm far from having it all together, God continues to show me cracks within my character that need his touch, & thankfully he's patient with this strong willed stubborn type A girl. 

My prayer for us all is this: Have eyes to see, ears to hear, & and a heart to understand.