IT'S NOT WORTH IT:HARDEN NOT YOUR HEART

Greetings  beloved, I welcome you to the month of September. I hope you are increasing in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? I will like to admonish you on what I titled ‘Harden Not Your Heart.'The writer of Hebrews warned, “Do not harden your heart.” (Hebrews 3:8), What are the consequences of a hard heart? The writer gave some examples in  verses 18-19; “And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”Unbelievers who fail to listen to the voice of God fail to enter God’s eternal rest. But there is also a rest right now, a place of blessing that God wants us to live in. If we continually harden our hearts against God, then we will not experience the place of rest. The Israelites were not able to enter the place of blessing because of unbelief. When you harden your heart against God so many times, there comes a point at which you are no longer able to respond to the voice of God. For you that may refer to salvation. You have heard the voice saying you need to be saved. You know you need to trust in Christ. You need to make a profession of faith and trust in Christ today. You know you need to do that, but there are other things that you have been distracted by, so you have taken this warning and put it to the side, thinking ‘Someday I will get to that.’ You can do that so many times that you eventually no longer feel the need to trust in Christ.You may be a Christian, God has been speaking to you about a particular area in your life that needs to change. You know you need to make that change, but you think, ‘I will find a more convenient time, when things settle down, then I will take care of that area of my life.’ There will come a time when you are no longer able or even willing to make that necessary change.The Bible says, “Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if you will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness.” (Hebrews 3:7-8). The most dangerous word is to say I will do it tomorrow. Somebody has said, “Tomorrow is a thief that robs dreamers of their dreams and the gifted of their accomplishment." We think the opportune time to do something is tomorrow. God says the opportune time is today.Notice how many times the writer of Hebrews said ‘today’, ‘Today if you hear His voice” (3:7). “But exhort one another daily, while it is called today” (3:13). “While it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice harden not you hearts as in the provocation” (3:15). To delay trusting God when you are tested, to delay obeying God when you are ordered, is to risk developing a hard heart and falling away from the living God.The Bible says in Proverbs 29:1, “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.” Pharaoh hardened his heart and resisted the authority of God over his life, Pharaoh blinded himself and incurred the wrath and judgement of God. Some are quick to point out that it says that “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart” but the truth is that we were told numerous times that ‘Pharaoh hardened his heart’ before we were told that finally “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” If you decide to reject God long enough He will enviably grant your wish. Only after Pharaoh had proceeded to harden his own heart, knowingly, willfully and sinfully, did God oblige him.Beloved, you don’t have to get to that level. Yield to the instructions of the Holy Spirit as he leads you by His voice through your spirit, for His thoughts for you are of peace, not of evil, to give you and expected end –Jeremiah 29:11.God bless you. See you next month.