Today If You Hear His Voice

"Do not harden your hearts" - Hebrews 3:15

This time last year, I came across a video called The Hardening Of Pharaoh's Heart , which I found quite interesting. It wasn't of great significance to me then, however today - a year later, as I happened to come across it again, I found the message relevant to me and to everything happening around me now more than ever.

Here's what I understood from the sermon:

When God hardens the heart of a [sinner], it is an act of judgment towards a man who already has enmity against his creator. [Revelation 22:11, Romans 1:24] So God's grace is displayed when He puts restraints on the wicked. In other words, it is Him not letting me "do me"; to go off on my own and let me have my own way. His common grace binds me to Him - that I am able to understand His will as revealed through Scripture, and that I am able to obey His commands. 

Sometimes when I look at the world around me, and even just right into my own circumstances, I'm prone to wonder if God is in control like He says He is. (I know He is, don't stone me yet) I won't even brush on things such as politics, social or even environmental issues here - but just on a personal level, I sometimes ask myself:

"If You're real, why do I stand alone in my convictions?" 

"If You're real, why does my family get sick?" 

"If You're real, where is my joy?"

Those thoughts eat me up inside. I find myself weeping - not crying, weeping - day and night to find answers to these questions, hoping that I find solutions to them. 

As I was listening to this sermon by R.C. Sproul, I couldn't help but examine myself. Was I turning into Pharaoh? Sure, I wasn't a slave-driving, self-centered ruler who tortured an entire race of people just because. But one thing common to me and Pharaoh was that we often fall into this pattern of relenting and repenting for a season, and after a while, fall back into stubbornness. 

The ruler always wanted to see physical results before submitting to God. And I was no different from him. Because when I wouldn't see God manifest His grace in the way I expect Him to, I grow weary and disappointed. I question if it's really worth it to continue running the race.

Until I remember that God isn't so much working to deliver to me my ideas of joy and comfort, my heart will be numb to His glory. 

But thanks be to God, who doesn't allow me to carry on that way. His Word always comes alive and is able to cut out the weeds in the soil of my heart, and water the Truths that need to grow. I'm starting to grow an appreciation for the fact that when I am able to understand His Will and Promises as mentioned in the Bible through the work of the Holy Spirit, that alone is one of His gifts of grace to me. 

BACK TO BASICS

Yesterday (02/22/2017), I began a new chapter in my walk with Him by taking a class called The Fundamentals of Faith, at Grace Community Church.

It couldn't have been more timely that the first lesson was knowing and understanding the Bible. The message of 1 Corinthians 2:12-14 (pictured here, if you can read it) was a wonderful reminder of His grace:

"Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."

I've come to realize that being able to be a partaker of His Word is a great privilege. And it was even a greater one to join a community where others like you were seeking to know the Truth as well. After all, it was never God who moved further away from us in the first place. From the very beginning, our hearts had no desire for Him, and so it's only natural for us to often drift back into what is "normal" for us. But what is normal isn't always what is right. Which is why it's important to develop an appetite for Scripture.

I think i'm slowly building that through this class. I mean, personal devotions are definitely something else, but there's also something special with being able to be with others who are learning along with you. Somehow the truths become stronger, and the desire to do well becomes greater. Last Wednesday, we had a wonderful time digging deep into the Word and asking questions about what some of us might have already known long ago, or to others, what they have just discovered recently. And that was what was so encouraging about it - different people from different walks of life, and at different stages of their faith, but being able to come together in that way and read, hear or understand the same things - it kind of affirms everyone's beliefs. (Have you ever had that? Something like "WOW, SO I'M NOT CRAZY?") I haven't felt that way in a long time, to be honest. And I could say it helped soften my heart in some way.

It's true what they say that in life we'll never stop learning, but the thought of being a student again is definitely exciting. Wednesday nights will definitely be something to look forward to from here on out. 

- D