Jesus' Fingers

Hey everyone!  Strange title, huh?  I'm so excited to share with you what that means :)

Before I get to that...brrrrr, it turned cold here today!  And by cold, I mean 65 and windy.  I guess I've just gotten used to the warm Florida weather.  But, I am enjoying snuggling up in my sweatpants, soft blanket, and hot coffee this evening.  Plus, Joe made chili for dinner tonight!  Perfect way to spend a chilly (haha) evening.

This weekend, I attended the Living Proof Live event in Daytona Beach with Beth Moore.

I learned so, so much, enjoyed worshipping with 8,800 women (and a few men), and being in God's presence and hearing from Him.  As I said on Sunday, if you have a chance to go to one of these events, YOU SHOULD (their 2014 schedule is out now)

I wanted to share with you one of the passages we studied this weekend.  It comes from the Gospel of Mark:

"Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.  And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.  Ad taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tounge.  And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is "Be opened."  And his ears were opened, his tounge released, and he spoke plainly."

Mark 7:31-35

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Isn't that an interesting way for Jesus to heal the deaf and mute man?  He put His fingers in the man's ears, then spit on His finger and touched his tongue.  As Beth said after reading this, "we know this: Jesus was not afraid of germs!"

Well, the point she made from this Scripture hit me like a ton of bricks:

We need Christ's fingers in our ears sometimes to hear.

There is so much going on around us.  We have our family, friends, work, school, kids, social media, television, the internet, smart phones, etc. all constantly demanding our attention.  Often times, we let these things get in the way of truly listening to God and hearing what he has to say to us.

What an awesome visual of Christ's fingers plugging our ears so that we can hear what we need to be listening to!

Since hearing that on Saturday, I have prayed numerous times for Jesus to plug my ears so that I can hear His message to me.  I've also prayed that He plug my ears from people's opinions or word about me.  God has been faithful and kept me focused on Him, His words, and seeking His favor and His opinions of me.  What a blessing this has been to me this week!

I hope that in sharing this word that I got, it will help someone out there focus on God this week.  When you feel like you can't hear what He's saying, simply pray for Jesus' fingers in your ears (as weird as that sounds), and He will have you hear what He desires you to hear.  Praise Him!

Question for you: What do you need to stop listening to this week?