All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.”
Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’ ” “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

I have lived in many different circles of people (at home, at church, and at work) over the past 49 years, I have seen and gotten to know some wonderful people. People from different cultures and countries, people with different views and ideas about life. Some of these people have shared with me some great joys and also some very tough pain. And we have taken these to the Lord together and seen His hand time and again.

As I have interacted with people, there often comes a “litmus test” moment for them in life: this is a time they have a choice to grow closer to God by hearing the “hard truth” and changing, or they can choose to fall back into sin and take the easy path. M. Scott Peck starts out his famous book, The Road Less Traveled, by stating: “Life is difficult.”

I have seen some wonderful people have life fundamentally changed by addressing the difficulty — the pain in life — with the Truth of God’s Word. One such person was named “Sue”. She was really struggling with physical pain in life. She was inconsistent at our community Bible study group, though she knew the prayer, fellowship, and God’s Word was good for her. So we loved on her and encouraged her. And she finally admitted there was a deeper problem than her physical pain — she was having to live with her sister, and they fought a lot, but she did not have the money to move. It was so bad; she was considering taking her own life. Horrible! We shared with her that God had a wonderful plan for her life and that he would provide. We assembled our group for a special meeting, presented the need, and a young couple opened up a room in their house to this lady. What a HUGE blessing! And her whole outlook on life changed as a result.

She was presented with the truth that God wanted to free her from her situation, but she had to admit she had a problem and trust him. She had to believe in him. And she did.
The neighbors Jesus spoke to here were, on one day amazed and loving towards him. But on the next, when he challenged them about the truth — that their hearts were corrupt — they decided to turn away from God and tried to have Jesus killed. His own neighbors and friends turned on him. Why? I believe it was a pride issue. I can just imagine them saying: “How dare this young man who comes from a questionable birth (his mom was pregnant prior to her marriage), lecture us on our motives and faith.”

So, presented with the truth about their corrupt hearts, they lashed out at the messenger, instead of dealing with the hard truth.

We have a choice today as well. We can either choose to follow God and work through the hard truths and painful situations in our lives with him in control, or we can push him away and settle for the easy path.

Lord, thank you for your Son who SPOKE the TRUTH when it was POPULAR and when it was DANGEROUS. What a model of faithfulness! Teach me to have the discernment and boldness to follow his lead! And may I always SEEK AFTER YOU FIRST, and work through life’s pain and challenges, instead of taking the easy way out.