Itching Ears

Itching Ears By Kirk Hunt

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 NKJV

If you are like me, you hate to be wrong. Prayerfully, you are also like me, and you sincerely desire the discomfort of real truth over the illusion of fables or myths. The lust for lies over truth is called “itching ears” by the Apostle Paul.

Human beings prefer to glide from win to win, with nary an uncomfortable factoid to be seen or felt. God’s people, followers of Jesus Christ, are constantly being battered by inconvenient and even distasteful things like facts, data and Real Truth™. Last I checked, all of God’s people are also human beings, therefore you may be vulnerable to itching ears.

The unredeemed may be misled. After all, they do not have God’s power or the Holy Spirit to guide them toward truth or away from error. God’s people do not have that excuse.

God gives wisdom to those who ask it of Him. You do ask for wisdom, do you not? In order to ask for Godly wisdom, you must first turn your own desires toward the things of God.

What do you allow yourself to want? Do you sincerely seek God’s truth or justification for your lustful urges? Are your ears itching?

Think: I should direct my desires to God’s truth, no matter how my ears itch for something else.

Pray: “Lord, give me Your wisdom and truth, no matter what.”

 

Copyright © April 2018, Kirk Hunt

This devotional is brought to you courtesy of CadreMen Press. You can purchase a copy of Blessed and Blessing: Devotionals For Gospel Champions from your favorite bookseller or directly from CadreMen Press.

Believe The Truth

Believe The Truth By Kirk Hunt

And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 NKJV

Apostle Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians to warn God’s people to love the truth and reject lies. The truth is often simpler and less complicated than the lie. The problem is that the lie appeals to something sinful in us.

All too short a time after the establishment of the Church at Thessaloniki, someone was teaching that Jesus had already returned and raptured His Church. Paul spoke against this apostasy but then addressed the deeper issue of loving the truth.

Paul states it is important for God’s people to cultivate a love for the truth. He states just as clearly that men and women can take “pleasure in unrighteousness.” Which do you choose; truth or unrighteousness?

Addicts believe the drug is a benefit. Adulterers believe in their reasons to lie and betray. Swindlers believe the money in your account is theirs, rather than yours. Of course, there are subtler ways to believe a lie, rather than the truth.

Do you love the truth, rather than a lie? Are you willing to believe a lie and be damned? The choice is binary. Either you seek God’s truth or you love the enemy’s lies. Believing the lie means accepting a delusion that leads to condemnation.

Believing the lie requires that you set aside the facts and data. Loving the truth makes it easier to spot the lies. Seek His righteousness. It is easier in the long-run.

Think: Do I really seek the truth, or do I prefer unrighteousness?

Pray: “Lord, help me to love Your truth and righteousness.”

 

Copyright © January 2017, Kirk Hunt

This devotional is brought to you courtesy of CadreMen Press. You can purchase a copy of Blessed and Blessing: Devotionals For Gospel Champions from your favorite bookseller or directly from CadreMen Press.