Listening to Jesus can be difficult. No matter how he speaks to us, sometimes it’s hard to listen and do what he says.
Maybe he speaks to us through a prompting of the Holy Spirit.
Maybe he speaks to us through a conversation with a friend.
Maybe he speaks to us through his word.
Jesus is always going out of his way to speak to us. But sometimes we go even further out of our way to ignore him.
Which is a little embarrassing because demons are really good at listening to Jesus.
Most of the demons we see in the New Testament are all about listening to Jesus. They’re terrible because they torment people and serve Satan. But, even as bad as they are, they still listen to Jesus.
In Matthew 8 Jesus drives out a bunch of demons with a word.
In Mark 5 the legion of demons begs Jesus to let them go into a herd of pigs but only do what Jesus tells them to do.
In Mark 9, as soon as Jesus tells the mute demon to leave the boy, it does.
We’re obviously better than demons because we’re not entirely opposed to the work of God in this world. But, in all honesty, demons are sometimes better at listening to Jesus than we are.
That sucks.
We shouldn’t learn from the example of demons, because there’s really nothing redeemable about their desires or work in this world. What we can do, though, is make sure that we are going out of our way to listen to Jesus.
When he speaks to us through the prompting of the Holy Spirit we should follow that prompting.
When he speaks to us through a conversation with a friend we should take his or her advice.
When he speaks to us through his word we should look for ways to apply it to our lives.
Jesus wants to guide and direct our lives. We need to be willing to listen.
If demons do it, then we should do it too.
What helps you better listen to Jesus?
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