Oh, that today you would hear his voice,
What does the Spirit say to us this morning? It is the first thing. It is the prerequisite. Without it nothing else is heard. Without it we place ourselves beyond God's saving help. What does he say? "Harden not your hearts".
We've all been there and done that. We have all had our own rebellion on days of testing in the desert. There are times in all of our lives when we hear God's call and choose to ignore it. The ignorance we live in from this ignoring is a culpable one. It is our own fault. The invitation is before us and we know it is right but we reject it.
After a rejection this intentional we might wonder if the LORD even wants to heal us. We know he can heal us, certainly. But does he wish it? Yes! No matter how many times before now we've asked to be made clean he does not grow tired of mercy. His mercy is new each morning (cf. Lam. 3:23). There is more joy over the sinner that repents than the one who has no need of repentance. This is true the first time they repent and every time thereafter. There is rejoicing. There is celebration. God always delights to welcome the prodigal home. When we ask for mercy Jesus always says "I do will it. Be made clean." This is true if we are sincere. If we understand that our sin is more ugly than leprosy we are sincere. If we harden our hearts and ask forgiveness as a pretext to keep sinning our hearts only grow harder. Jesus heals us if we come before him. But if we keep up that sort of thing we eventually grow so hard that we stop asking.
How do we ensure that we remain soft and malleable? How do we keep our hearts from growing hard?
Encourage yourselves daily while it is still "today,"
so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin.
Do we encourage one another? Do we actually help to build one another up in our faith? The promises that we have are so great. There is a time coming when every tear will be wiped from our eyes (cf. Rev. 21:4). There is a rest that remains for God's people (cf. Heb. 4:9). So if we're tired and the way seems hard let us at least be excited that one day we will rest. If we don't talk about this, if we are too embarrassed to be excited about it, it gradually loses its power. To not encourage one another is in fact a hardening of our hearts. How so? We are invited to do it and we don't. Encourage one another. It isn't hard! There's a lot to be excited about.
We need to hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end. God gives us the grace to do so. Let us not harden our hearts to that grace. Let us encourage one another in that grace. Let us make Jesus the center of our lives that he wants to be.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
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