Trust and Obey

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

TRUST AND OBEY

Prov 28:9

9 If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable.

NIV

This most certainly does not apply to the civil laws of a country, but the law of God. Turning a deaf ear to what God has to say is not a good deal at all. Now the problem here is that the result is not having prayers heard by God. This would imply the person spoken of as anyone who turns a deaf ear to the law is a believer rather than someone who hates the idea of God, or refuses to believe in Jesus Christ. However there seems to be a group of people who are what we would call church attenders, people who consider themselves as Christians because they attend church. But they have not engaged in a personal relationship with Jesus, they have not been born again, or in some words used, saved. Yet they believe their prayers are heard by God. It would seem obvious their prayers would be detestable to God. They refuse to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but still having a form of godliness. They do not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and therefore they cannot know the will of God, nor his divine truth. In essence they might be likened to the double-minded man.

Ps 119:113

I hate double-minded men, but I love your law.

NIV

This double-mindedness is being led or living life according to the ways of the world, but also attending church thinking that makes them a Christian. Why would God listen to their prayers if they do not listen to his words.

 There is also the chance that we who are born again or saved could stuff up our ears to the word of God. We too might be double-minded in some sense. We know the word of God, we read it, and we have the indwelling Spirit to enlighten us into all truth. Yet we might be in danger because we do not either believe it fully or we refuse to obey it. The children of Israel were God’s chosen people. He chose them to reveal himself to all mankind. He has done so much for them, he had revealed himself to them is so many physical ways. He proved himself to be the one true God, the creator of all that is created. Yet they turned a deaf ear to him.

Zech 7:8-14

8 And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: 9 "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.' 11 "But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. 12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry. 13 "'When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,' says the LORD Almighty. 14'I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land was left so desolate behind them that no one could come or go. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.'"

NIV

Here is a people who have had so much given to them, so much from God and they still stopped up their ears and refused to pay attention. This is a warning to us. We must never be guilty of stopping up our ears, of not paying attention. There are so many ways in which we might refuse to listen. Without listing every command of God it would be almost impossible to list all the ways we might stop up our ears. But some of the most obvious ways are in our relationships with each other. Not forgiving each other, harboring ill feelings, being self-centered, being rude, or unkind, or impatient. We could refuse to trust in God by putting our trust in self, or self-reliance, or self-effort. We could place more trust in the worlds system of finance then God’s system. There are so many ways we could be stopping up our ears and not paying attention. Is it any wonder are prayers are not heard? It is almost like living as a crippled Christian. We believe some things, but not all things. We cherry pick which scriptures we will believe and which we will not. We purposefully misinterpret some scriptures to fit our thinking so we can justify our way of life as being right. How is it we think God will hear our prayers? Unless we are absolutely open to the leading of the Spirit and completely willing to listen and act on his commands, it would certainly seem we could not expect to have our prayers heard, he will turn a deaf ear to them. What is the answer? We have to listen and do that which God commands. Yes, are we going to fail at times? Sure, but the idea is that we have to be willing to be open and have the desire to fulfill his commands for our lives. We cannot say, I know that I should love my neighbor, but I just cannot do it. That is stopping up our ears. We cannot say, I know God would have me to do this or that, but I am too busy, or tired, or do not believe I am qualified, or some other excuse. If we want God to consider our prayers, not thinking of them as detestable, then we have to believe and obey him. We need to trust and obey, for they is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.