Do Not Harden Your Heart

Hebrews 3:15

“Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.”

Who would want to make God angry? As they came out of Egypt, the children of Israel were given many opportunities to display faith in God and trust Him for the perils they faced, and yet they were so rebellious, so defiant toward Him, that an entire generation refused to put their confidence in the Lord and as a result, they wandered around in the desert for 40 years without a home.

The distance from Egypt to the Promised Land is short enough that they could have crossed in a few months, even on foot, but they wandered for all those years grumbling and complaining. Rebellious influencers claimed that they were better off enslaved in Egypt. Others crafted hand made idols of deities that did not even exist, claiming these were the gods that led them from bondage.

As you might expect from a large mass of disunited people, they did not trust the leadership of Moses and contended with the decisions he made. Even when the Lord provided for them through miracles like manna from heaven every morning, they complained.

So today, when God is calling you and I to follow and obey Him, we should heed this warning.

Do not harden your heart.

What does that look like?

A hardened heart is not receptive to the things God wants us to learn and apply in our lives. A hardened heart complains about the trials they have to face. A hardened heart continues to look only to ourselves and our abilities as our hope.

Like a rebellious child, we do not want to listen to the one who cares most about what is good for us. We only pursue our feelings, our fleshly desires, our selfishness, our fears, and our unbelief in what He can do if we would trust Him.

If you do not surrender your life to Him, you will have to take another lap around the desert and face the same trials over and over.

What does another lap look like?

You will experience more nights of worry, the anger you won’t give up, the strife in your family that keeps you apart, the striving to get ahead and the stress of trying to be in control all the time. And you will be characterized by a complaining heart.

You will never experience His peace that passes all understanding and you will only get temporary happiness from short lived pleasures. That's a miserable way to live.

Make that commitment now.

“I will trust Him. I will surrender my decisions and priorities to Him. I will live His way in obedience to the Bible.”

Start each day with a receptive attitude as you help yourself to a heaping bowl of His Word and listen as He speaks to you.