To Encourage You

Hebrews 4:7 “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”

It is so easy to put things off. It’s so easy to think to ourselves, “I should do that,” and yet fail to do it for one reason or another.  It can be because we have other things to do that are vying for our time.  And perhaps those “other things” aren’t so demanding, or they are more enjoyable – so that thing we really should do gets put off.  Or maybe other things are more urgent – the squeaky wheel, so to speak – so the more important thing gets delayed.  Eventually it can all catch up with us.  For example, if the roof of your house is reaching its useful life, say you have 25-year shingles and it’s now year 24, you know that you really should replace them, but for one reason or another you just don’t.  Well, although we can sometimes get away with such delays for a while, at some point we may find ourselves with a leaking roof at a very inconvenient time, or the cost will mushroom if those leaks destroy the things the roof covers.  It would have been so much better if we had not delayed. 

The same holds true for spiritual matters, although the impacts of “putting it off” can have much more far-reaching and devastating effects.  We see such a warning in the verse above. Notice that it tells us that there is something we need to pay attention to today, i.e., right now, at this very moment.  And what is that thing?  It is the voice of God.  This Scripture is telling us that if we have the wonderful privilege of hearing God’s voice today, we need to pay very close attention to what we hear.

Although God speaks to us primarily through His Word, the Bible, He has ways of bringing those words to our hearing in multiple ways. It may be by our own Bible study. It might be by way of a sermon we hear either in person or on the television or radio. It might be by a book we are reading that makes reference in some way to God’s Word. It can be by something another believer happens to say to us.  Sometimes it’s during a difficult time in life, when what someone has said to us, perhaps years ago, suddenly comes to mind. 

You see, God has promised those who truly desire to follow Him that, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you” (Psalm 32:8).  But He is also telling us that if we hear Him speak, “Do not harden your heart.” Don’t walk away and forget what you’ve heard. We are not to wait to do what He is telling us to do today. Don’t think that you’ll do that thing someday, when the fact is that someday might never come. 

I think of the way that God led Israel in the wilderness. He led them by way of a pillar of fire by night and a cloud during the day. When the cloud or pillar stayed put, they were to stay put. When the pillar or cloud moved, they were to move – not the next day, not a week from now, but right now.  In a New Testament parallel we are told “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).  And we are to do this every day, day by day.  It is as we listen to the voice of the Lord today and obey, then tomorrow and obey again, that we will end up with a lifetime of serving the Lord.  Otherwise, we may find ourselves with lots of good intentions, but nothing but regrets in the end. That will be especially true if the message He has been telling us is “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).