“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness…'” 

Yeup. That’s Hebrews, Chapter 3, verses 7 through 8 and if you’ve sat through an alter call or two, you may have heard this verse once or twice. This scripture is used A LOT when it comes to accepting and receiving salvation. I think it’s an awesome scripture to use when talking about Salvation but it is so far beyond that, as my husband would say… “it’s ridiculous!” 

When we really stop and think about it, the root of a hardened heart is unbelief. There are people just straight up don’t believe in God. There are also people who may harden their heart because they just can’t see how a God so holy could love someone as messed up as them. They may think it’s too late. Hearts could be hardened because of pride, anger, or rebellion. Whatever reason we can think of, it’s root… deep down… is unbelief. 

Now back to the text…

We see in verse 7, it starts by saying that “IF you hear His voice…” 

When it says “if” it’s not saying… if He decides to speak today make sure you listen. One thing about God is that He is always speaking. It’s really up to us if we hear Him. I work in a school front office and find myself waiting for parent’s to call me back. Sometimes I’m still waiting around lunch time or the time I get off so before I leave the room I will say to my co-worker “IF Mr. Bellhopper calls me back please let him know his son needs lunch money”. Often times when I get back I see that he has called back and answered my question. I just missed it because I wasn’t in the right place to receive it for myself.

When I said “IF” I knew he was going to call back but didn’t know if I would be in the office at the time he called back. Just like this scripture, “IF” does not pertain to whether is will happen or not rather “IF” we hear it or not. 

Have you ever had a conversation with someone, especially on the phone, and had to ask them to repeat what they said because you couldn’t hear them. Just because you couldn’t hear them doesn’t mean they didn’t say something. 

Sometimes God is calling us to salvation and then there are times when God is calling us to move forward, to do that one thing that scares us the most. Sometimes, He calls us to do that which we have deemed impossible or too hard. And because of that we ignore it. We harden are heart.

When my twins don’t like something I say, they will ignore me calling them. I know they can hear me but they don’t want to do it so they act like they never heard me and keep doing whatever they have been doing. Sometimes, when we hear God calling us to do “crazy” things we can ignore it or brush it off like we never heard it. Like when someone says something ridiculous in a conversation and rather than entertaining to comment we say, “I didn’t hear that!”

Which brings us to the last peace where we are urged not to harden our hearts in rebellion. Rebellion is an act of resistance to something you know is the right. 

God has a definite plan and purpose for your life. Whatever He is calling you to do is going to seem greater but that’s because He doesn’t want you to do it on your own. He wants us to need Him. 

I encourage you to move forward, do what God is calling for you do. Walk is your purpose, believing that God will help and lead you along the way.

So TODAY if you will hear His voice, Do not harden you heart in rebellion… say YES and watch how God works!

In love,

CB