Inside Out {Luke 11 GMG Reflection}

In Luke 11 Jesus addresses the religious leaders and teachers. He deals rather harshly with them because the rules they add on to Scripture and impose upon those whom they lead and teach misrepresent the truth and lead people away from the Savior. They are very concerned with external cleanliness but forget about the importance of a pure heart.

Even today it can be easy to fall into this sort of living. Most of us try to keep up appearances. We try to appear good on the outside by doing all the right things even when our hearts on the inside may not be in the right place.

I know personally it is often easier for me to go through the motions of doing the right thing than it is to deal with my heart attitude. I think this is because I have this idea that I can't help how I feel about something. And that may be true, maybe I can't help how I feel, but by the power of the Holy Spirit God can change my heart and my attitude and that is just as important as my actions.

This chapter offers a couple of solutions to getting our insides to match our outsides; seeking the Holy Spirit in prayer, and keeping focused on Jesus allowing His light to shine through us from the inside out.

Luke 11 begins with a lesson on persistence in prayer in which Jesus says, "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knows, it will be opened... If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" {Luke 11: 9-10, 13 NASB} So it turns out, what I need to cleanse my heart and change my attitude is promised to me when I persistently ask for the Holy Spirit.

Furthermore, referring to Himself, Jesus also says, "No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on a lamp stand, so that those who enter may see the light. The eye is the lamp of the body; when your eye is clear, your whole body is also full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness." {Luke 11:33-34 NASB} The Life Application Study Bible explains that Jesus is the lamp and the eye represents spiritual understanding and insight which can be clouded by evil desires and distractions. But when our eyes are clear and allow the light of Jesus into us, then our lives radiate His light from our insides out.