March 29

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. — Isa 35:5 BSB

These miracles of God are accomplished through the power of the gospel, as made clear by the preceding words: “Behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; He will come and save you” (Isa. 35:4). And how does God come and save? He does so through the gospel, making it the power of God unto salvation. If you reflect on your experience, you will see that one of the first effects of the gospel’s power upon your heart was to open your ears to receive it as a message from God. When you first came under the sound of the gospel, and began to understand and feel its truth, wasn’t it as if you had been given new ears to hear and a new heart to receive the message? Weren’t those memorable days when you first heard the joyful news of salvation by free grace, when that blessed message filled your heart with unspeakable joy? At that time, God was circumcising your ears, unstopping them, and bringing the gospel into your heart through them, for “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).

“As soon as they hear of me,” the Lord says in prophecy, “they shall obey me—the strangers shall submit themselves unto me” (Psalm 18:44). That same gospel, which others rejected, was life to you. The message that caused others to gnash their teeth entered your heart with indescribable sweetness, as the very voice of God speaking to your soul.