Soft Heart

DEVOTION HEBREWS SOFT HEART Heb 3:7-11 7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. 10 That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'" NIV There is a plain and simple consequence for hardening our hearts against the voice of the Lord. It is true we live in the age of grace, or dispensation in which God has provided Jesus Christ as our substitute to pay the penalty for our sin. But at the same time if we were to harden our hearts to this grace, to this dispensation, to his voice and go our own way, it would appear the same consequence would still apply. Now we need to examine our hearts and determine if we are in the midst of going astray. Are we being influenced by the ways of the world more than by his ways? Do we believe we are the captain of our own ship? Do we think about how we are going to do this or that, buy and sell, go here and there without consulting our Lord as to what he desires? Are we in a career of our choosing or one that he has directed us to? Are we living in the place of our choice or of his? Are we just living through life as it happens according to our plans or as it is directed by his plan for us? If we assess that we are living according to our own desires and plans then it may well be we are in the midst of hardening our hearts and going astray. We might well include a portion of our lives with God on Sunday morning, and we might even show up once more during the week, but it is enough to be considered focused on Jesus? Is that enough to say we have not hardened our hearts to his voice? If we want to hear those words, “Come, my good and faithful servant, enter into my rest” we may well need to pay closer attention to his voice, following where he leads, doing what he has called us to do, being what he has called us to be, focusing our thoughts upon Jesus, walking in accordance with his plan for us, working where he wants us to, living in a neighborhood he has directed us to, being involved serving him as he has called us to. That may not necessarily be at church, it could be, but it may not need to be. He may call us to serve the rest of the body in some other manner, outside the walls of the building. But he is calling, his voice is clear; we need to listen, and pay attention, and obey. We need to live with a soft heart.