Are your hearts hardened?
—Mark 8:17
The Pharisees challenged Jesus to prove himself by giving them a sign from heaven (Mk 8:11).
The miracles they’d seen him perform—healing the sick and exorcising demons—weren’t enough for them. They wanted to see fireworks, something spectacular straight from the sky—like Elijah calling down fire from heaven (1 Kgs 18:38) or God sending manna from heaven (Jn 6:30-31).
Even his hand-picked disciples, though not as vocal, displayed faulty faith. “Are your minds closed?” he asked them. “You have eyes, but you don’t really see. You have ears, but you don’t really listen” (Mk 8:17, 18 NCV).
Those were conditions he often lamented: closed minds, blind eyes, plugged ears.
Dear God, Deliver us from defective minds, eyes, and ears. Open our minds that we may believe, our eyes that we may see, our ears that we may hear.
When all is said and done faith will win.
It’s up to you to decide which side you’re on.