Today… If You Will Hear His Voice…
At the turn of the year, mankind can subconsciously put God in a box. We conform to what the world calls the New Year. Many seek new beginnings, some trying to turn over a new leaf, hoping to make new year resolutions or break with bad habits. However, God is not in time. Time is in God. He is never in a hurry, He is never late, but He is always on time. God, who created everything, does not align Himself with man’s timescale, but overrules everything with one verse: “Today (that’s now), if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts…..” Hebrews 3:15.
We can easily think to ourselves, “If only the world would not harden their heart to the Creator of all things!” Well, what about me? Well!….I know God don’t I? God knows me far better than I know myself, (Psalm 139). However long any of us have walked with the Lord, the verse quoted in Hebrews is current and challenging each day – TODAY……if you will hear My voice…. That little word “if” carries great weight. It involves a choice to believe what God says.
God’s word teaches us that a hard heart is caused by unbelief. Hebrews 3:12 “Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God”. God calls it evil because He knows it will begin a downward spiral of events out of His purpose and detrimental to the well being of our fellowship with Him. Unbelief is the devil’s ground, so why would I give him a foothold?
Sometimes there are so many unanswered questions, and yet when I find a place of trust in Jesus, I find He grants my troubled heart a place of rest that only He can give. The greater, the Lord Jesus, includes the lesser, my unanswered questions. Every answer is to be found in Him, and He will give those answers in His perfect timing as I learn to trust Him, instead of wanting to know everything. When God created Adam, Adam was only meant to know God, not the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis chapters 2&3) Adam, wanting to know everything, ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, (which he was forbidden to eat of because God knew it would be detrimental to him). God wants us to trust Him with the unknown and, thus, walk more closely with Him. How irksome to have a child that is constantly anxious. How pleasurable to have a child who totally trusts and just enjoys the Father’s presence, confident that He is able to take care of everything according to His purposes, and incidentally, my benefit.
A sister was carrying out household chores, when the Holy Spirit dropped a word into her spirit. The word was – diagnosis. She thought it a strange word to receive from the Lord. The Lord said to her, “What is your diagnosis?” She thought for a minute and then replied, “By the stripes of Jesus Christ, I am healed”. She thought of her five natural senses and how they are subject to change. Only our God and Saviour, and His word, never changes. They are the same yesterday, today and forever. We have a completely new way of looking at things through the word of God. We now live, through the life of Another, with an ear tuned to hear His voice. That is the goal.
Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”.
Exodus 4 records the account of Moses receiving his call from God to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land. Moses was fearful of the call, of the people and of Pharaoh. Moses was holding a rod in his hand, a dry old stick, but when Moses received his commission, the rod of Moses became the rod of God in his hand. God asked Moses “What is that in your hand?” Moses went on to perform many mighty miracles through that empowered rod. With the turn of the year, God may be asking some of us the same question. Is there something in our hand that He is requiring of us to use with His blessing for kingdom purposes? Do not despise the day of small things. Remember the five loaves and two fishes, a young boy’s lunch put into the hands of Jesus fed 5,000 people.
Dear Lord, as we navigate this new year, help us to keep sensitive to hear and obey Your voice, wherever You may lead, delighting Your heart, enjoying Your presence.