“Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” – John 8:47
We are humans and one of our common traits is the ability to deny even if something is already obviously true. We tend to deny everything we don’t like to hear, we don’t like to see or we don’t like to believe especially if we are backed in a corner. Every time we are rebuked or told that we did something wrong, our very first instinct will tell us to deny it and refuse to listen. We are hard-headed and full of pride. We always think that we are right.
Now, in our verse today, Jesus practically tells us to whom we belong and to whom we don’t belong. As human as we are, we hate judgment and we hate it so much every time our wrong doings are being called out. However, Jesus said that those who belong to God hear Him and the reason why there are people who don’t hear God is because they don’t belong to God. This is such a wake up call for us. We can then assess ourselves, to whom do we truly belong? Do we hear and obey God?
We have to check ourselves again. Although we deny the truth, we can really testify that we most of the time choose to not listen to God. We choose to not hear Him and instead we continue to sin and if we are rebuked that we are doing bad, we retaliate and accuse the instrument of God that they are judgmental. Well, in fact we are the ones that are at loss. We are the ones that are denying the truth and we couldn’t accept the fact that we are hard-headed and we are sinful. Thus, we must reflect on what Jesus said, are we of God? If we are of God, then are we obeying Him? Are doing what He commanded us to do? Or we are just claiming that we are of His but we still continue to disobey Him?
Therefore, we should always remember that if we claim that we are Christians and that we are of God, we have to also see if we are living what we claimed. As what many people will say, “living what you preach”. Our lives should manifest the love of God and we should show obedience to God. We should submit ourselves to Him and let Him have the control of your life. We cannot just talk and talk but we don’t do what we are saying but we have to walk the talk. We have to live our lives holy and righteous already for Jesus made us righteous through His death. We have to always hear from God and listen to His voice as He guides us to the way He wants us to go.
Thus, as we hear His voice and listen to Him, we can then say that we are of God and we belong to Him. Indeed that God’s love, mercy and grace is always there for us but most of the time we walk away from it. Therefore, let this reflection be your reminder today to go back to God. Go back to His presence, obey and submit to Him and let Him have the control over your life. Do not let the devil have you, but instead let God have you and let Him own you for He is the God of love, peace, grace and He will always accept you through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
