WHAT ARE PEOPLE THINKING? How come people don’t understand God’s will? We tend to tell people what is good in our own minds, rather than finding out what truly is good.

In life, there are two kinds of attitudes, a right one and a wrong one. God has said that we should have an attitude that desires to read His word. Reading the Bible is an important task. It is so important He had it written so we can understand His will, and His commandments. 1Co 2:12 “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” Also in Eph 3:3-5 “How that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:” We need to read or hear, we need to know, what God’s Word says, for it reveals His will for us. Everybody’s destiny will be determined by whether we understand and obey those words, the Bible.

To meet fulfilling this command we need to have the right attitude. It is our attitude which will determine whether we understand. In Matthew 13:3-8, the Parable of the Sower, Jesus taught about different hearts or attitudes toward the Word of God. The seed, which is His word, fell on the wayside, some among rocks, some among thorns and some upon good ground.

In 13-15, we find the meaning. Some cannot understand because of closed ears, eyes, and minds, Jesus explains. It states, Mt 13:13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.” It’s possible, with a wrong attitude, to read the word of God and be wrong because we’re not seeking to discover what He wants, rather we seek to find what we want to find.

Jesus applies the prophecy from Isaiah to the religious people of His day. They had preconceived ideas about the Christ, since Jesus did not fit their beliefs, they rejected and crucified him. Why did they not understand? It was neither because God’s word was incomprehensible nor because the teacher was incapable of teaching. The reason was because of a wrong attitude? Their preconceived ideas of a savior, didn’t match with the word of God about His Anointed one. Neither will we understand if we approach Bible study only to prove what we already believe, or want to believe.

What you or I do with Scripture is dependent on our attitude. We need a plan. We need a way to start off with a right attitude. Your attitude determines your understanding which springs to action and it is action the Lord seeks.

Set up a time where you can read your Bible, take time to reflect and think of what is God trying to communicate rather than searching to make His word fit your belief. Determine what is involved with obeying His commands, and then plan to do it. Will you be like those in Acts 17:11?

“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”

Will you also learn from these people at Berea who searched the Scriptures daily? The people searched. This is what we do at Franklin St. Church of Christ.  Join us by reading, studying, and practicing the commandments of God. Let us find this right attitude.

Daniel Surges