Beware

As He always does, Jesus notices what is going on around us and even knows what’s going on in our thinking. 

One day Jesus’ disciples forgot to bring enough bread for them to eat that day and were talking about that among themselves. Jesus reminded them that He could feed them if necessary. He’d fed more than 5000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish and another 4000 people with again, just a bit of food. 

Jesus adds this interesting bit to the conversation:

And he [Jesus] cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? Mark 8:15-18

Yeast was a little metaphor that was used to represent sin and wrong in Jesus’ time.  Jesus is warning his friends that just a little unbelief, just a little complaining, just a little believing the watered-down ideas about who He is that others have to say, can infiltrate and mess up everything.

In fact, it’s not even discarding truth but just letting our hearts be hardened and not taking the time to see and understand what God is doing that leads to our ultimate destruction. 

Someone has said so well:  “When we harden our hearts even just a little bit and refuse to obey God on what we might consider a minor matter, we introduce leaven into our lives that can spread to other areas. It is imperative, therefore, that we regularly repent for our disobedience and seek to obey the Lord in all of life. We should be striving for obedience in all matters, not just the really “big” ones.”

Help us Lord to be aware of defining life by our present circumstances rather than by Your promises and Your guiding principles for life.  Forgive us for seeing all kinds of things that You’ve done down through history, even in our own lives, yet failing to allow our understanding of You and Your ways in our lives to be changed by it. 

Help us again today, Lord, to be aware of the ways our fears get in the way of the moments of opportunity You present to us in the trials and challenges we face.  Most of all, help us to be aware of our need for faith to trust You and take You at Your word, believing that Your love and power will carry us safely through this day.

Help us Lord.  We understand and we fail to understand.  Fill us again today with Your Holy Spirit so we understand more than we ever have before and rise up in faith as we never have until now and represent Your truth better than ever before so Your kingdom comes and Your will is done here on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen

Well let’s let the Holy Spirit show us things we need to beware of today and take action.