Open for God to do business in us.

Are you open for God to reveal something to you that you've never considered before? Are you open to being wrong?

Jesus spoke of His death and resurrection in Matthew 16. Peter didn't like the sound of Jesus' plan. Peter took Jesus aside and basically said, "Listen, don't talk like that. You don't know what you're saying!"

Here is Jesus' response to Peter: "But he turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.'" (Matthew 16:22-23 ESV)

I wonder how many things the Spirit says to us and our basic response is, "Listen, don't talk like that. You don't know what you're saying!"

Think about the many things that are current topics of interests in the social atmosphere in the world. How many of those things are we attempting to make normal when God has already said those things should not even be? That's us, as a culture or a people or a nation, saying to God, "Listen, don't talk like that. You don't know what you're saying!"
How about the things in our own lives? How about the things we have learned to justify that we are doing by saying, "That's just the way I am" or "It's just the way it is." How many things is God calling us to do -- you know, commanding us to go and do -- such as preaching the Gospel, serving the needy, helping the weak, defending the defenseless, etc. -- that, with our disobedience and apathy, we might as well be saying, "Listen, don't talk like that. You don't know what you're saying!"

Peter didn't realize the very thing Jesus was proclaiming -- His death and resurrection -- were the keys to freedom for Peter. Peter couldn't understand either the necessity of what Jesus was saying or the benefit that would come from Jesus' actions.

Too often, we're not open to God showing us something we've never considered before. Too  often, we're not open to being corrected. We block His work in us.

In the end, Peter reaches a dramatically different conclusion about the death and resurrection that he held in Matthew 16. 1 Peter 1:3 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3 ESV). See what Peter has learned? We have a living hope because we have a resurrected (living) Lord Jesus.

So, what's our problem? What blocks us from even being open to revelation? What blocks us from receiving counsel, instruction, correction, rebuke or wisdom from God? Jesus said this was Peter's problem: "For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." (Matthew 16:23b ESV)

Let us set our minds on things above. Let us be open for the Giver of Life to tell us about the living of life...