Don't harden your heart
Today when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Hebrews 4:7
This morning I was on a search for God's rest. What is it truly? How do I find it and live in it? I am fully aware I am emotionally eating again and I want to get to the root of it. I came across the well known verse in Matthew 28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. I then said ok Lord, I am coming to you with heavy burdens how do I find this rest? I then found Hebrews. God actually tells us three times to not harden our hearts so I dug a little deeper.
In Hebrews 3 the Holy Spirit is talking and I felt a prompting to really pay attention to what He is saying:
7 That is why the Holy Spirit says,
“Today when you hear his voice, 8 don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness. 9 There your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years. 10 So I was angry with them, and I said, ‘Their hearts always turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’ 11 So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”
12 Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. 13 You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. 14 For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. 15 Remember what it says:
“Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.”
16 And who was it who rebelled against God, even though they heard his voice? Wasn’t it the people Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness? 18 And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest? Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed him? 19 So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest.
There is so much here to dive into but today I felt the need to just ask where have I been disobedient? I don't want to harden my heart and continue in sin because that is a scary place to stay away from God's rest. What is really standing out to me is in verse 12 is says to be careful and make sure your own heart is not evil and unbelieving.
Hmmmm unbelieving...
In Mark 9 when Jesus is healing the demon possessed boy his father says in verse 24 “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!
What was hindering him from not believing his son could be healed? Years and years watching him held captive I am sure helplessness and hopelessness settled in. The father says to Jesus in verse 22 The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”
Here is what comes next:
23 “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
The father is aware of his unbelief and asks God to help him overcome it.
Am I too being hindered by unbelief?
Lord, do not let my heart become hard from this sin.
Help me overcome unbelief today in Jesus name!!
Anything is possible with YOU!
ANYTHING!!!