Opening our ears.

Psalms 25:9
9 He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way. (NIV)

As a former athlete, I remember seeing players so talented but convinced of doing things their own way. I can still remember a verbal beatdown my college coach put on one of my teammates because it seemed he refused to do what he was told. He thought he knew better. In the end, though he was one of the best athletes in the linebacker core, he did not play.

I would later experience this as a coach. I had players so talented but they refused to run the plays called, follow the technique I wanted, or do anything they were told. They were convinced they could be a better player doing things their way. So, I stopped coaching them and stopped playing them until they humbled themselves.

The thing is that coaches know more about the whole scheme of things than do individual players. They may see what might be better for them, but when they try it, because they don’t know the whole plan and the assignments of all players, what they do actually backfires and hurts them.

This is how it is with God. Only He knows fully all the working parts of His best plan for our life. The Bible says He opposes the proud. Our pride causes us to believe we can do things our way and still find the best life. But we don’t know all that is going to happen. We don’t know what tomorrow holds so how can we think that we know better? If we won’t listen, it is not that God will turn away from us, but our own refusal to submit to His ways turns a deaf hear to His voice. We can’t hear Him guide us down the right path. We need to open our ears.

But when we humble ourselves and follow His directive even if we don’t understand it, we are acknowledging that He is God and we are not. We accept that He knows all things and we know very little. Humility is the willingness to obey even when it doesn’t make sense to us. But this humility opens our ears to the still small voice of God who will guide us. He will teach us His ways and lead us to the abundant life He has promised.

Prayer: Lord, help me to humble myself and obey You whether I agree or not, whether I like it or not. Amen.

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