areliablefaith

Areliablefaith Devotional | Matthew 23, Luke 20–21, and Mark 13

I missed yesterday because of an early appointment. Since some of the same stories run through yesterday’s and today’s readings, I’m combining them into one post. The common thread is Jesus foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. But the title that keeps ringing in my mind is “Be Thou My Vision,” and to explain why, I have to begin with a little story.

Praying in the Dark

I was up very early this morning, wrestling with something unfair at work. I really wanted to debate it and argue it out. But I realized that probably wouldn’t accomplish what I wanted from a work standpoint, and it especially wouldn’t advance God’s kingdom. James says it plainly: “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).

So I walked around in the dark, praying. Because it was dark, I set my glasses down and never turned on a light. After about an hour, I came in here to do my devotion and suddenly thought, why can I not see very well?

Oh. I don’t have my glasses. Where did I put those glasses?

I had read through both days’ readings that way. It occurs to me that this is not a bad picture of how we often read these chapters.

Words Too Big to See All at Once

The disciples admired the temple, and Jesus told them, “There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down” (Mark 13:2). He had already told Jerusalem, “See, your house is left to you desolate” (Matthew 23:38). In Luke he is even more specific: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near” (Luke 21:20).

I know this history. The revolt began in AD 66, and in AD 70 Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, just as Jesus said. His word was accurate. Yet the people struggled to understand it, and even today, with the words captured in Scripture, scholars debate them. Was this only about Jerusalem? Was it about some future destruction? When Jesus speaks of the Son of Man “coming in clouds with great power and glory” (Mark 13:26), is that imagery about the first century, or about the end of all time?

I believe the answer is that Jesus’ prophetic words can be both. A number of times, God speaks on more than one level. He gives us something that is true today and true tomorrow, and the two can be distinctly different things.

The One Who Gives the Light

The Holy Spirit, God with us and living inside believers, is the one who can prompt, nudge, and guide us and give us the illumination we need. Jesus promised that the Spirit “will guide you into all the truth” and “will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13).

God resides outside of time. That’s how prophetic words could come to Jesus, the God-man. It’s also how, on occasion, God speaks prophetically through believers for the edification of the body, the building up of the church (1 Corinthians 14:3). He is able to show us things that are beyond our natural ability to figure out.

An Engineer Learning to Lean

I’m an engineer. I love to solve problems, figure things out, and come up with solutions. Yet I have learned in my walk that Jesus really values my trust. He wants me leaning on him, and as of this morning, allowing him to give me the picture of what he wants me to do, what he wants me to pray, and what he is about, so I can trust him to bring it to fruition.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).

One verse in these readings stopped me, given how my morning began. Jesus told his disciples, “Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom” (Luke 21:14–15). Mark records the same promise: “Say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit” (Mark 13:11).

Jesus was speaking to people who would stand before courts because of his name, and my situation is nothing like that. But I had spent the early morning preparing my arguments, and here was the Lord reminding me where the right words come from.

A Prayer of Relinquishment

So when I say “Be Thou My Vision,” it’s really a prayer of relinquishment. Lord, I don’t see the path through, but I know you have a way through. I don’t know the words I need to say, but I know you will give them to me at the right time.

Oh, Jesus, I love you. I thank you that when I don’t know, when I am in a place of frustration or even confusion, I can open my hands, lift them up to you, and say, here it is, Lord. Here it is, Lord. Please take this. Take this mess, this uncertainty, this confusion. I give it to you. I trust that you will do with it what needs to be done, and that you will show me what I need to do.

Sometimes that’s just to sit and be still. “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). So that’s what I’m going to do this morning. I love you, Lord.

For reflection: Where are you straining to see your way through on your own, and what would it look like to open your hands and ask Jesus to be your vision?

My friends, be blessed today and be a blessing.