Tick, tock, tick, tock, time passes by. You can feel it. Breathe in, breathe out. Your life is ebbing away. Do I own today? Can I really control tomorrow? What if my next breath is my last? So often, I find myself with less time than I thought I had. I find myself behind, trying to catch up with myself.
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart.
How often do we neglect to remember the coming wrath and judgment of God? We treat God as if He was joking when He warns us to turn from our evil ways, to straighten what has been bent, to tear down the high places, to pick up our crosses and follow Him.
“We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” (Hebrews 2:1-4)
If the voices of prophets, angels and other leaders for God is binding, how much more binding is the voice of Jesus?? How much more binding is the Word of the Scriptures? Yet because we do not see the consequences as evident in our lives, we refuse to listen. The immediate consequences that come from the hardening of hearts might not be the judgment of God, but He certainly allows in His perfect merciful wrath necessary reminders of what happens when we don’t hearken to the voice of God. When we harden our hearts and aren’t obedient we deny ourselves the chance for God to open the storehouses and shower down blessings upon us for our willingness to change, for our obedience.
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.” (Hebrews 3:7-9)
Do not harden your hearts. I find it interesting that the example used refers to when the 10 out of 12 spies refused to remember God’s promises. They said that it would be impossible to take the promised land. Strangely enough, the Israelites went with the majority of opinion and didn’t listen to the voices of Joshua and Caleb who believed that God would give them the land that He had promised. They chose to harden their hearts. And the consequence? They wandered in the desert for forty years. Forty years of pointless wandering in a dry and weary desert. Does your life seem pointless? Do you feel like you’ve been in a desert for years and things don’t seem to be getting any better? Do you have a hard heart? Are you listening to the voice of God and softening your heart in response? Do you harden your heart against what He is telling you? Man, I find that I harden my heart sometimes. God, help give me a soft heart that wants to do what You want me to do.
See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? (Hebrews 12:25)
How sad that we so often neglect to head the warnings of the Almighty. Do we forget that He will not always speak? Should we not persist to seek out God’s voice through church, the Word, prayers, one another in every way possible lest He cease to speak??
Notice the key aspect of timing. Today. Not tomorrow, not later, not next semester. Not after the summer is over. The timing is today. The timing is now. Today IF you hear HIS voice. What a privilege to hear the voice of God. What a privilege to read the Scriptures. Do not harden your heart. Absolutely do not harden your heart. Don’t say, “that’s not for me.” Don’t say, “well I’m glad that God loves me.” Don’t say, “man everyone else needs to hear that.” Today, if you are so privileged as to hear the voice of God then by all means do not harden your heart. Today, if God is pressing you. Today, if God is convicting you. Today, if God is moving in your life. Today, if you desire to see God work in your life. Today, if you’re tired of the desert you’re in. Do not harden your heart. Soften your heart. Open up your mind. Tear down your resolve and your stubborn will. Respond to God with a real willingness to change and He will show up in your life.
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart.
Dear Heavenly Father, please forgive me for my sin. Please forgive me for sinning against you. Please forgive me for hardening my heart and not being attentive to your voice. Please forgive me for not making my mind up and making the most of today. Forgive me for desiring the temporary pleasures of sin rather than obedience to You.