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Week 2 Day 10
Luke 17:20-21
Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
In this life we have a great understanding and reinforcement of physical things that we can see and touch. However, throughout the Gospel narrative Jesus is consistently pointing us to a comprehensive understanding of how to understand life, especially a spiritual life. He wants us to know a spiritual world, plan, and existence that is not seen with the eyes or touched with the hands. And with urgency He wants us to understand this as more real and important than the present physical world.
When I was young I remember having a great fascination with how things worked. Because of this I loved taking things apart and putting them back together. I remember dismantling radios, phones, bikes, televisions, and watches just to satisfy my curiosity. Sometimes I could reassemble them and sometimes not so much. Even today I still have this deep longing to understand, and I do still take things apart from time to time. But now I have endless resources at my disposal such as YouTube videos of experts who actually know how to correctly take things apart.
What I have discovered from this desire is that there is no end to the learning. I believe that God has given us a desire to learn and grow so that we can know Him. And I believe He knows it will take us a lifetime to understand the meaning of the “Kingdom of God.”
Just consider Jesus’ interaction with the Pharisee’s in this text. After years of religious training they still do not really understand the kingdom or that is standing right in front of the them. They have been trained for most of their lives in the scriptures and the ways of God, yet they hold to physical behaviors and practices that they can see and touch to a fault, which impedes their ability to understand Jesus. The transition for them from the physical to the spiritual is just too difficult.
Reflection
Consider how Jesus would want you to grow in Godly understanding today. Take for instance an attribute of his character that you need to more fully understand like love, grace, mercy or forgiveness. Consider the limited understanding you have of this and pray that God would reveal how you can understand it more fully. Stretch yourself to embrace it, and live out a fuller expression of it in your life by digging deep into its biblical meaning. And if you want a real challenge, try living out this new understanding today.
Prayer
Father, I pray today that you would show me something about yourself that would expand my knowledge of the kingdom and of you. That you would open my eyes to the unseen world that is more real than this present world, and that through this you would disclose to me the secrets of God so that I can more full glorify you.