Monday, December 31, 2012

Soft Hearts for a New Year


As we head into a new year, we find a good word in the book of Hebrews where it quotes Psalm 95:7-8 and its reference to a time the Israelites quarreled with their Lord.

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.  We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.  As has just been said:
‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.’
Who were they who heard and rebelled?  Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?”

It seems amazing that the very people that God blessed, as God lead them out of Egypt and into freedom, had hard hearts.  Yet we know how easy it is to take our blessings for granted and to want our own way.  May we, who know the blessings and presence of our Risen Lord, hear his voice and offer Him our soft hearts as we follow Him.

“I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.  Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.”  Ezekiel 11:19-20

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