One Piece at a Time

Remember the movie E.T.?  (Stay with me for a minute...)  The part where he's in the hallway, and Elliot is leading him in the direction he wants him to go with a trail of Reese's Pieces?  E.T. moves along his path, one piece at a time...until he gets to the end and there's a whole pile of candy waiting for him.

Mark 4:24-25 stuck out to me today, mainly because upon first reading it I didn't understand what it meant.

"Consider carefully what you hear, he continued.  With the measure you use, it will be measured to you - and even more.  Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him."

My Bible described this better by saying that the light of Jesus' truth is revealed to us and is not hidden....and as we put God's teaching into practice we will understand and see more of the truth.  As we obey, we gain understanding.  It also said that Jesus' words might have been directed at people who reject Him, and their hard hearts would render any understanding they had as useless.

To understand Jesus, and to be given further understanding, we need to take each piece he gives us (through his Word and in prayer) and let it direct our own paths - like the candy.  When we learn a new truth, we're asked to do what it says (see James 1:22-25).  We let it interrupt our thinking and redirect our actions (something introduced today in my bible study).  When we do this, Jesus tells us that "Whoever has will be given more"...we start out our path piece by piece going in the direction He leads us, until we are rewarded with more.