Age is a relative thing. It is character that matters.”
–Louis L’Amour (The Proving Trail)
“But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”
–1 Samuel 13:14 (NKJV)
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I came across a little piece of advice while reading the other day. “The two things in life you are in total control over are your attitude and your effort.” Most likely it was written by that famous writer, “Anonymous.” Then I looked at the second part of Psalm 95. Verse 7, hits a person right in the face, “…Oh, that you would listen to His voice today!” (NLT).
7 — …Today, if you will hear His voice:
8 — Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 — When your fathers tested Me; they tried Me, though they saw My work.
10 — For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, “It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways.”
11 — So I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter My rest.” (NKJV)
There is that big word, “If”. “If you will hear,” means that we are “to listen with strictest attention with a view to obedience.” The first step in worship is to respond with submissive faith. True worship must have as its components humility, and an obedient relationship with Him. (Lawson)
“Do not harden your hearts.” There is a warning in these words, yet we also see grief hidden in them. The Lord grieved when His people did not obey, and the hardness of their hearts caused Him to rise up in anger. You remember the story of the rebellion of the Israelites when they would not heed the words of Caleb and Joshua. They had a plumb, stinking attitude. I’m sure the spirit of slap came upon Moses, when he asked, “Why are you testing the Lord?”
It is a dangerous thing to “test” the Lord. The people provoked His patience and He would allow them to wander, to stray in the wilderness for the next forty years until all of that generation died save Caleb and Joshua. What a legacy! It was like slapping the Lord in the face after seeing His mighty hand at work. It was like the mouthy kid, that flaunts his arrogance and attitude at you. Some people may claim that they know the Lord yet their hearts are hard–“they go astray in their hearts.” It reminds me of the Pharisees and priests of Jesus’ time. They thought they knew the ways of the Lord, but they went astray in their hearts, and truly did not know His ways. What else comes to mind is when the Lord returns, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) These people really never knew the ways of the Lord.
We worship God in spirit, that means with the proper heart attitude. Our hearts must be prepared to worship. Then we worship with our life–part of which is proper response to God’s word and living in right attitude toward Him. Then and only then, will we finally enter into His rest. Those will attitudes of a hard heart, of “I’ll do it my way,” of raising their first toward God will bring forth His anger an they will never enter His rest.
“Fear not, brethren, joyful stand
On the borders of our land;
Jesus Christ, our Father’s Son,
Bids us undismayed go on.”
–John Cennick
———————————–
I came across a little piece of advice while reading the other day. “The two things in life you are in total control over are your attitude and your effort.” Most likely it was written by that famous writer, “Anonymous.” Then I looked at the second part of Psalm 95. Verse 7, hits a person right in the face, “…Oh, that you would listen to His voice today!” (NLT).
7 — …Today, if you will hear His voice:
8 — Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 — When your fathers tested Me; they tried Me, though they saw My work.
10 — For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, “It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways.”
11 — So I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter My rest.” (NKJV)
There is that big word, “If”. “If you will hear,” means that we are “to listen with strictest attention with a view to obedience.” The first step in worship is to respond with submissive faith. True worship must have as its components humility, and an obedient relationship with Him. (Lawson)
“Do not harden your hearts.” There is a warning in these words, yet we also see grief hidden in them. The Lord grieved when His people did not obey, and the hardness of their hearts caused Him to rise up in anger. You remember the story of the rebellion of the Israelites when they would not heed the words of Caleb and Joshua. They had a plumb, stinking attitude. I’m sure the spirit of slap came upon Moses, when he asked, “Why are you testing the Lord?”
It is a dangerous thing to “test” the Lord. The people provoked His patience and He would allow them to wander, to stray in the wilderness for the next forty years until all of that generation died save Caleb and Joshua. What a legacy! It was like slapping the Lord in the face after seeing His mighty hand at work. It was like the mouthy kid, that flaunts his arrogance and attitude at you. Some people may claim that they know the Lord yet their hearts are hard–“they go astray in their hearts.” It reminds me of the Pharisees and priests of Jesus’ time. They thought they knew the ways of the Lord, but they went astray in their hearts, and truly did not know His ways. What else comes to mind is when the Lord returns, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) These people really never knew the ways of the Lord.
We worship God in spirit, that means with the proper heart attitude. Our hearts must be prepared to worship. Then we worship with our life–part of which is proper response to God’s word and living in right attitude toward Him. Then and only then, will we finally enter into His rest. Those will attitudes of a hard heart, of “I’ll do it my way,” of raising their first toward God will bring forth His anger an they will never enter His rest.
“Fear not, brethren, joyful stand
On the borders of our land;
Jesus Christ, our Father’s Son,
Bids us undismayed go on.”
–John Cennick