Friday, February 1, 2013

What You'll Get


"Consider carefully what you hear," Jesus continued. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you- and even more." -Mark 4:24 (NIV)

I once had two interesting conversations. One was with someone who was telling me why she enjoys teaching Sunday School. "When I'm teaching Sunday School, I always pray more, read more, and study more. I learn so much about the scripture or the subject that I wouldn't have known by simply reading the biblical text. Then I can't wait to get to my Sunday School class and share it." Interestingly enough, this Sunday School teacher is universally regarded by her classmates as one of the best Sunday School teachers that the class has ever had.

I was sharing this conversation with another person from another Sunday School class: how this teacher prepares so well and is so well regarded by the class. The person with whom I was speaking said, "Wow. I'm not even sure that some of our teachers have read the chapter before coming to church that morning. And I'm fairly certain that most people in the class haven't read it either."

In today's scripture, Jesus is saying (as one translation puts it), "What you get depends on what you give. What you give, you will get back, but only more so." To use the examples above, the more you pray, the more you study, and the more you prepare, the more that you'll get out of your Bible study. You'll learn things that you did not know. These new truths will lead you to other truths. You'll likely be more excited about these new discoveries and cannot wait to share them with others.

But if you wait until Sunday morning to read your lesson (or even worse don't read it at all), you won't get as much out of it. You won't be as invested. You won't be as interested. You won't be as excited. You'll get out of it what you put into it.

You'll never learn to swim if you don't venture off into deeper water. If you fall out of bed, it's more than likely because you slept too close to where you got in.

May God grant you the grace to realize that you'll get out of life what you put into it.



Tomorrow's Reading: Mark 5
Sunday's Reading: Mark 6
I'll be back on Monday with a devotional from Mark 7

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