Daily Radio Bible - February 24th, 22

 A DISPOSITION OF HEART

Numbers 17-18; Psalm 29 and Mark 4. We are reading through the NLT.

Listen!  A farmer went out to plant some seed. (Mk 4:3)

He was broadcasting.  That word may seem like a modern word but it’s actually an agricultural and fishing term.  The sower was casting the seed abroad.  He was broadcasting.  Similarly, a fisherman casts his net broadly.  The word broadcast is a descriptive and practical word.  We also use it to describe the mass communication of a message.  We broadcast – we throw out a large net of words and ideas, in hopes of gathering up as many as we can into the vortex of our message. We do that, knowing that it’s only going to be a specific grouping of people that is going to receive, understand and respond to the message being communicated.

In today’s reading we see that a certain kind of readiness of heart and disposition of spirit, is required, in order to receive, understand and respond to His life-giving message. Jesus says we need to have ears to hear.  We need to pay close attention to what we hear.  Static abounds.  Satan lurks.  Our desires get in the way.  So much prevents us from actually hearing, receiving and responding.  There’s an old oriental proverb that says, when the student is ready the teacher will arrive.  It captures what Jesus is saying to us here.  He’s letting us know that there is a certain disposition of heart that is required in order to receive the good news of God’s kingdom and perceive what God is seeking to do among his people. These receptors are not really a product of our virtue, or our piety, they are most often a product of our brokenness.  Our failure.  A humble, contrite, and broken heart, that seems to be the heart that is truly ready. Something about a broken heart that opens up our ears to the broadcast, to the messenger, to God.   The antennae will be in its proper place, the message will be received and the miracle of new life will begin.

Today if you hear his voice, a voice that says, I am with you, in the midst of your loss, your failure, your dissapointments, I am with you.  I’ve been there all along.  Today if you quite yourself, perhaps you will here that, and if you do, don’t harden your heart, instead respond, take the next step, let him heal, let him mend, let him sit with you right where you are at.

You are loved!