More than we need, even when we didn't know we needed it

After a few days, Jesus returned to Capernaum, and word got around that he was back home. A crowd gathered, jamming the entrance so no one could get in or out. He was teaching the Word. (Mark 2:1-3 MSG)

He was teaching the Word. We might read on to the best parts of this record, finding faithful friends who press through the crowd, tear back a section of the building's roof, lower the paraplegic man into the midst of the room where Jesus sat teaching, and find that he was totally healed. Today, I want us to stop short of that recorded story, though. I want us to see what drew the crowds in the first place - he was teaching the Word of God. It wasn't the miracles that drew them - he was teaching truth and they were crowded around to hear what he taught. I wonder if our hearts are that intent on finding out what he has to say to us today?

Whenever we go to God's Word, we do so with some form of intent. Perhaps we are looking for answers, or maybe we want some form of spiritual 'lift' because we aren't feeling all that great about life at the moment. We might go to his Word out of a sense of obligation or guilt, knowing we are supposed to get into his Word if we are Christians. I wonder how many times we go to his Word merely because we want to listen and take away some nugget of truth that will maintain us through our day or help us with the resolution of some issue we keep encountering that is weighing us down. 

Regardless of our intent, God may have prepared something we never 'intended' to receive when we got into his Word. He is like that, you know. It is as though we bring one matter to him, thinking it is what really matters right now, and he uncovers a totally different thing he wants us to learn. Maybe Jesus saw the faith of these friends who did all this work to see their friend brought before Jesus, but it never says he was healing the sick at that moment. It says he was teaching the Word. This is important for us to see, my friends, because it means we may not be going to his Word with the intent of receiving a healing, but when we are listening to his Word, being taught at his feet, it is quite possible a healing may come!

Sit long enough as the feet of Jesus, listening intently to what he is saying in his Word, and you will find much more happens within you than you ever imagined when you took that time to sit with him. The more we 'sit with' Jesus, the more his Word has a chance to change us. The crowds pressed in to hear his Word. They filled the place to overflowing because they wanted to hear the teacher. The Word is powerful. It draws us in. It keeps us there long enough to see its power. Sometimes we have a hit and miss attitude toward his Word. We take it in a little while, then we forget to do so for some time, then we head back. The truth is that regardless of when we come, when we sit and listen long enough, his teaching will reveal something we need, even when we don't know we need it. Just sayin!