But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word
of God and observe it.”
Luke
11:28 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
This was Jesus
responding to a woman who cried out as He passed, “Blessed is the womb that
bore you.” It is our instinct to honor and bless what we see rather than what
causes what is seen (praising rain instead of the Rainmaker etc.) or to give
honor to those who were merely an instrument instead of the One who worked
through that person. While it is good to respect and honor those who are godly,
we need to be careful that we don’t cross the line to idolatry. God is the only
one worthy of praise and no person or thing should receive the praise He is
due. Of course it is a blessing to be used by God, which Mary did, but the
focus should be on the fact that we hear and observe or obey, not on us as
people. That is where the blessing comes from, obedience to God, and not from
us. It may seem like splitting hairs, but there is a profound difference.
Saying that we are blessed for who we are or what we have done implies that the
blessing comes from us which breeds pride and conceit, believing that we had
something to do with it. But really we are blessed when we obey God because all
blessings come from God. It is similar to attributing deity to the creature
rather than the Creator. Nothing in ourselves is worth praising, nor brings
about any blessing. It is all from and because of God. Mary heard the word of
God and obeyed it, but she was blessed because of her open heart and obedience,
not because of herself as a person. She has no reason to be revered above any other
human whom God uses for His great work. Examine your life. Are you open to the
word of God so that you willingly obey Him? Do you seek His word to know how to
live? Hear the word of God, obey it
and be blessed!
No comments:
Post a Comment