he drives out demons.”
Jesus you are light. You have nothing to do with darkness. In you there is no darkness at all (cf. 1 Joh. 1:5). Yet you are so good as to be threatening. On the way hand, we delight to see how good you are. On the other, that very goodness exposes us and calls us to change. It is the same in your saints. If we can only infer some impure motives we feel we let ourselves off the hook. But if we have something to be exposed help us not to flee from your light. "For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open" (cf. Luk. 8:17). It does not shine to destroy us but that we might have life.
When you speak to us LORD, we always have a choice. We can hear you or we can harden our hearts. We can let you gently reveal the areas of our hearts where you are not yet LORD. Or we can flee from your presence. You can draw us to come before you in worship. Or we can tempt and test you in spite of all the grace and blessings you do for us.
You want to be close to us, Jesus. You want to be our God. You want us to be your people. You want us to walk in your ways, not because you are capricious, but so that we may prosper.
Since you are so patient with us help us to learn how to bring you patiently to our brothers and sisters who are also stubborn and slow of heart just as we are.
When you speak all these words to them,
they will not listen to you either;
when you call to them, they will not answer you.
But you still call us to go to them. You still call us to extend to them the invitation. You call both them and us before you. You want us to come and sing joyfully to you. Soften our hard hearts to acclaim you as the Rock of our salvation. Put songs of praise and thanksgiving on our lips and bring us to worship you.
There are times when you speak to us and we hear you and know it is you and yet don't want to listen. How can we accuse you of using the power of Beelzebul when such great good is accomplished? When a mute man has a demon driven from him it must be the finger of God. But if we don't want to listen we might insist on "a sign from heaven". We just saw a great healing! But our hearts are hard and no sign is enough for us when our hearts are too hard.
But no matter how hard are hearts, no matter how well guarded they are by the fully armed strong man, they are not safe from your mercy.
But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him,
he takes away the armor on which he relied
and distributes the spoils.
So break into the hardness of our hearts! Let us hear your voice today, LORD Jesus. Let us listen and then respond with all that we are in worship!
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
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