My Precept Bible Study is studying Exodus 4-7 this week so, when I saw the verse listed in Greg Laurie's Daily Devotion, I was interested to read the Devotional right away! As I read it, it hit home. I've highlighted the sentence that hit me hardest. It made me really think.

While I think I am reading, studying and applying God's Word in my life, I realized there have been times (and probably will be again) when I read something I don't particularly care for and simply ignore it. It is usually not a conscious effort on my part, but it happens none the less. Wow! This has made me way more aware of my need to continually ask God to open my mind and soften my heart to be totally open to His Word and what He expects of me in thought, word and deed. I need to not play the role of Pharaoh when it comes to the Word of God.

If you have a similar situation, perhaps you also would consider asking God to open your mind and soften your heart to hear and obey His Word.

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2011

Be Careful How You Listen

So the Lord said to Moses: "Pharaoh's heart is hard; he refuses to let the people go."
— Exodus 7:14

When is the easiest time to get a hardened heart? The answer may surprise you. It is not while hanging around godless people, doing godless things. The easiest time to get a hardened heart—an attitude of indifference toward the things of God—is when you are hearing the Word of God. Of course that also can be a place to have your heart softened. But as I have said before, the same sun that softens the wax hardens the clay.

If you have an attitude that says, "I don't want it. I am not hearing it," then your heart will grow hard. The Bible says, "He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy" (Proverbs 29:1). The idea being that the person who gets a hard heart is someone who hears the truth and rejects it.

A good illustration of this is Pharaoh. He saw miracle after miracle performed by the hand of Moses. And what do we read? Pharaoh hardened his heart. He saw a rock turned into a snake, and he hardened his heart. The Nile turned to blood, and he hardened his heart. God sent plagues of lice and flies and frogs, and Pharaoh hardened his heart. Ultimately, we read that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Some people are confused by that detail. How is it that Pharaoh hardened his heart and then God hardened his heart? The answer is that God waits for us to make our move, and then He will confirm us in it. Pharaoh hardened his heart, and God strengthened him in that decision, even though it was wrong.

So be careful. You can get a hardened heart while hearing the Word of God. It is all in how you listen. Don't let it happen to you.