According to Birbal, the wisest and most famous of King Akbar’s ministers, amongst the four footed animals, the cat cannot be trained to do the trainer’s bidding. The other wise men in Akbar’s court, always on the lookout for a chance to belittle Birbal, took up the challenge and trained 10 cats within a few months. Now King Akbar invited Birbal to dinner and showed him the 10 cats, standing still with platters of burning candles on their heads, in formation, while the King had dinner in candle light. Birbal was amazed and asked, “Sire, do they stand like this daily?” The King said, “Come again tomorrow evening and see for yourself.” Next day Birbal came again and sat with the King for dinner. The cats were also standing in formation with the candles on platters placed on their heads. Quietly, Birbal brought out a mouse wrapped in his handkerchief from his pocket and let it loose near the cats. As soon as the mouse ran on the ground, the cats forgot all their discipline and training and ran after the mouse. Birbal gave the King a sly smile, while the King was left dumbfounded.
People too have a similar nature, they disciplines themselves for years, but when temptation comes, all the discipline is forgotten and they end up doing and saying what they should not.
God’s Word says of such persons, “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). They learn to bring an external change, but their inner self does not change. Such people gradually turn a deaf ear to God and then God to stops speaking to them. Those who stop introspecting to correct themselves, start looking for shortcomings in others.
The Pharisees always lived with the thought – what do people think about us? They never bothered to stop and think for a moment of what God thought about them. They always tried to hide their faults. Their pride never allowed them to accept and confess their sins.
You must have heard of Aesop’s fables, which in very simple terms illustrate the truth about man’s nature. One of his tales is about the fox that tried to jump to reach a bunch of grapes, but could not succeed for they were too high for her. The fox tried many times, but failed every time. Finally, it gave up the quest, shook off the dust and started limping away. A hare hiding in the bushes and watching it all called out mockingly to her, “What happened, can’t reach them?” The fox sheepishly replied, “Oh no! Nothing like that, I was only checking them out. Actually the grapes are not ripe yet, I will come back for them when they ripen.” Man’s nature is shown in this story – he does not acknowledge his shortcoming but tries to cover it up. The fox stands for man’s hypocritical and cunning nature, the hare represents his conscience that time and again points to his deficiencies and deceptions. Our pride does not go from us, it only hides; we keep it under wraps through polite talks, in an attempt to show that we have no pride.
The Temple of the Jews was being managed by money, for earning money by people greedy for more money. Such a place they called ‘The Temple of God’. But when Jesus saw it, He saw it for what it actually was – a den of thieves. What a difference at how God looks at a thing and man’s view of the same thing. Today, if God i.e. His Word looks into your life, what does He see? Are you too able to see, in the light of God’s Word, what God sees in your life?
Have you ever thought about yourself? Or is it that you do not want to think at all? The person who stops thinking does a very foolish thing. But we are trying to compel you to think about yourself. Those who live to find faults in others are never able to see their own faults; they forget their own identity, they forget what they actually are.
May this prayer of David become the prayer of our hearts today – “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; And see if [there be any] wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalms 139:23, 24).
People too have a similar nature, they disciplines themselves for years, but when temptation comes, all the discipline is forgotten and they end up doing and saying what they should not.
God’s Word says of such persons, “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). They learn to bring an external change, but their inner self does not change. Such people gradually turn a deaf ear to God and then God to stops speaking to them. Those who stop introspecting to correct themselves, start looking for shortcomings in others.
The Pharisees always lived with the thought – what do people think about us? They never bothered to stop and think for a moment of what God thought about them. They always tried to hide their faults. Their pride never allowed them to accept and confess their sins.
You must have heard of Aesop’s fables, which in very simple terms illustrate the truth about man’s nature. One of his tales is about the fox that tried to jump to reach a bunch of grapes, but could not succeed for they were too high for her. The fox tried many times, but failed every time. Finally, it gave up the quest, shook off the dust and started limping away. A hare hiding in the bushes and watching it all called out mockingly to her, “What happened, can’t reach them?” The fox sheepishly replied, “Oh no! Nothing like that, I was only checking them out. Actually the grapes are not ripe yet, I will come back for them when they ripen.” Man’s nature is shown in this story – he does not acknowledge his shortcoming but tries to cover it up. The fox stands for man’s hypocritical and cunning nature, the hare represents his conscience that time and again points to his deficiencies and deceptions. Our pride does not go from us, it only hides; we keep it under wraps through polite talks, in an attempt to show that we have no pride.
The Temple of the Jews was being managed by money, for earning money by people greedy for more money. Such a place they called ‘The Temple of God’. But when Jesus saw it, He saw it for what it actually was – a den of thieves. What a difference at how God looks at a thing and man’s view of the same thing. Today, if God i.e. His Word looks into your life, what does He see? Are you too able to see, in the light of God’s Word, what God sees in your life?
Have you ever thought about yourself? Or is it that you do not want to think at all? The person who stops thinking does a very foolish thing. But we are trying to compel you to think about yourself. Those who live to find faults in others are never able to see their own faults; they forget their own identity, they forget what they actually are.
May this prayer of David become the prayer of our hearts today – “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; And see if [there be any] wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalms 139:23, 24).
No comments:
Post a Comment