April 21 I Thursday

2 Samuel 12-13

Luke 16

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.” —Psalm 19:1-2

About a year ago, I received an email with an article attached to it. The headline of the article was, “Businessman Offering $1 Million to Anyone Who Can Answer: Is There Life After Death?” I thought to myself, “this is going to be the easiest million dollars I have ever made,” but as I read through the article to understand the requirement of the submission, I got to the point where it said it was unwilling to accept any submission from anyone with a religious worldview. The businessman wanted answers to the big questions of life—who are we, where do we come from, where is this all going—but these answers are residing in a place where he was not willing to explore.

      Scripture tells us that we can be looking for the answers to the biggest questions of life and be unwilling to hear those answers even when they are right in front of us. Romans 1:19-20 says, “...since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” There is a common revelation to all of humanity.

      One time, I was watching a National Geographic program with my family that talked about the origin of the universe. Scientists on that show were unpacking how the world came to be, an intelligent design that was unexplainable. They were unanimous on the mathematical impossibility of earth striking a delicate balance to sustain life on it. As I watched the program, I could see that there was a suppression of the truth; there was a lot of acknowledgment on how everything coming together perfectly was amazing, but it stopped short of giving glory to God.

      Paul writes, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools….They exchanged the truth about God for a lie…” (Romans 1:21-22, 25). We could have all the evidence in the world but can still harden our hearts to the truth and believe a lie.

      Like the businessman from the article, we may be searching for answers to the deepest questions of life; yet, what if the problem is not God or the evidence that He has provided, but our own unwillingness to submit to the truth? 

Prayer: Creator God, may You shine Your light into my darkened heart and help me exchange the lies that I have believed for Your truth. I want to open my heart to submit to You. Thank You, Lord.