Ephphatha

Read Mark 7:31-37.

If you read the title of this entry you probably thought "What is that?" Or if you tried to pronounce it you probably got discouraged.

I took it from today's scripture reading in Mark 7. The word jumped out at me. It means "Be opened."

See here in verse 32-34: " There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.  After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!'"  It was then that his ears opened and he could speak.

What struck me here was that he WANTED to hear. Well, of course a deaf man wants to hear. But how many of us are spiritually deaf -- even for temporary moments? I have been deaf lately. It seems like everything I read is a glazed page in my Bible. Listening to the word is static. It was so depressing knowing I am not "getting it." I had a choice. I could continue on and just "hope" it came back. OR I could simply ask God -- with my minimal enthusiasm -- to open these tired ears.

I want to hear. I want to know. And sometimes we get so frustrated when we don't hear what we want that we shut out everything. It becomes routine and stale. That is how God's Word was for me in the last several days. Habit makes me read my devotions. Yet I was gaining nothing. It was my subconcious way of saying "I want answers that speak to ME, and since I see none, I am putting everything on mute."

If I couldn't see it, then I surely didn't want to hear it.

So now I cry "Ephphatha!" "Be opened!" Open my ears, my mind, my heart. Wake me up, Lord. Blast me in stereo. I CHOOSE to seek so that I may hear FROM YOU -- not FOR me.

What do you hear when you read the Bible? Nothing? Then ask. Cry out for the sake o fthe deaf man that lives in you....
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