Day 297: Acts 28:17–29

“Therefore, let it be known to you that this saving work of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen!” (v. 28).

How terribly we cheat ourselves when we have as much as we want from God. Although many of us have received the gift of salvation, in other ways we are not unlike some of the Jews that Paul encountered. We mimic the words of Felix, holding up our hand to God and saying, “That’s enough. That’s all I’m comfortable with” (see Acts 24:25).

Whatever the reason for our resistance, we may suffer from our own rendition of Paul’s diagnosis of many Jews. Based on my own experience, I recognize the danger. At times I’ve resisted what God wanted to do in me or through me. I seemed to hear Him less, see His activity less, and, tragically, love Him less. Thankfully, when I finally relented and became receptive, my spiritual abilities to hear, see, and love were restored to me.

Let’s examine the expressions Paul used and consider the abilities at risk when God desires to give and we continue to resist.

1. “You will listen and listen, yet never understand” (Acts 28:26 hcsb). By the word “listen,” Paul referred to the basic physical ability. By the phrase “never understand,” he referred to a crippling inability. The Greek word for “understanding” is suniemi, meaning “the assembling of individual facts into an organized whole, as collecting the pieces of a puzzle and putting them together.” Suniemi is exercised when “the mind grasps concepts and sees the proper relationship between them.” Do you see the tragedy at stake?

When we continue to resist what God has for us, we may cripple our ability to understand how the pieces of our puzzle fit together. We will constantly single out our experiences rather than understand them as parts of a whole. The things we go through may never make any sense to us. Preachers and teachers may tell us God is at work in our lives, but although we physically hear, we have little ability to understand.

Although we will not understand everything until we see Christ face-to-face, God often blesses us by letting many things make sense during our lifetimes. Most things I’ve encountered eventually made sense as I developed a more cooperative spirit and a greater understanding of God’s purposes. Many of those experiences still hurt, but I find comfort in seeing their eventual usefulness as parts of the whole.

You might think of the process this way: God is faithfully putting a puzzle together in each life so that the final picture will resemble Christ (see Rom. 8:28–29). If we continue to resist this further work, we will be less likely to see the pieces fit.

2. “You will look and look, yet never perceive” (Acts 28:26 hcsb). Again Paul referred to a basic physical ability as he used the word “look” to mean human vision. “Perceive” is translated from the Greek word eido, which merges the ability to see with the ability to know. Eido is “not the mere act of seeing, but the actual perception of some object.” If we continue to resist the further blessings and works of God in our lives, we may lose some ability to see past the obvious and the physical. Those who allow God to unleash His Holy Spirit in their lives are those who often perceive spiritual and eternal works in the physical and temporal realm. People who never see with spiritual eyes can’t comprehend how others claim to see God at work.

I’ll never forget the time Amanda’s seat belt in our old station wagon wouldn’t fasten. Five years old at the time, she pushed and pushed on it to no avail, so I finally told her to crawl into the front seat. Seconds later, the window where she had been sitting inexplicably imploded and pieces of glass embedded into the seat she had just left. I exclaimed, “Thank You, dear God!”

Later she asked, “Do you really think that was God?”

I said, “No, baby. I know that was God.” Every now and then God blesses us with a good dose of eidos. We not only see—we know! When Paul tried to point out Christ’s fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, many Jews chose to close their eyes and refuse to see. God wants to give us supernatural sight. Let’s not resist Him. Our lives are so much richer when we not only see but we also perceive!

3. “This people’s heart has grown callous” (Acts 28:27 hcsb). I was surprised when I discovered the meaning of the word “calloused.” You may be too! The original word is pachuno, meaning “to make fat . . . calloused as if from fat.” According to this verse, people who continue to resist God can develop fat around their hearts. In the physical realm, one reason fat develops around the heart is a lack of exercise. In spiritual matters many of the Jews had ceased exercising their hearts. Religion for them involved more of a state of mind and intellect than the heart.

At one time or another, we’ve all been hurt in love relationships. But if we cease to exercise our hearts by loving God and loving others, getting involved, and taking risks, our hearts will become diseased and hardened.

Through the prophet Isaiah and the apostle Paul, God revealed three dangers and three opposite blessings. By heeding Paul’s warning, we can have ears willing to hear, eyes willing to see, and hearts willing to be exercised.