Devotional- Refusing to Listen

Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking.  For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the early messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven!  When God spoke from Mount Sinai His voice shoot the earth, but now He makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also:  This means that all of the creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.  Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping Him with holy fear and awe.  For our God is a devouring fire.   Hebrews 12: 25-29

I have been tempted this week not to listen.  Have you ever been at crossroads where God is calling you to walk with Him down a dark path where you can’t see?  Where fears and questions seem to paralyze you?  You’d much rather go your own way, the way that looks safe.  The way that seems comfortable.  For faith to grow we must die to self.  Jesus called this picking up your cross and following Him (Matthew 10:38-39).  At the point of decision, do your trust yourself or the One beyond time, who can see all ends.  If you want to find life, you have to lose it.  You have to willingly let it go to have room to receive. 

This verse I referenced in Matthew is common if you’ve spend any time in church.  In its simplicity it is easy to comprehend but impossible to live out without His presence emboldening you.  My temptation is to deny His words because I can’t imagine a life where He is leading me.  But in Hebrews 12 I am reminded that the Kingdom we are to receive is unshakable.  Everything here is fluid, temporal, and can change in an instant.  None of it is mine.  I tend to hold tightly to the gifts that He owns and sometimes smother them in my desire to keep them safe.  So let me be thankful and hold His words to me in awe.  The Fire that devours is not to burn but to refine.  Our God only wounds to heal.  If I give Him my heart, He will give me the courage to let Him consume me and change me into something precious and valuable. 

1 Corinthians 3:13-15 says, Now if any man build on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.  If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.  If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 

Prepare your heart by listening to Like An Avalance by Hillsong United (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ2_Gg6ka-k).  Spend some time in prayer and/or journaling about what you have built on the foundation of Christ.  Meditate on Isaiah 28: 16-17.  For Jesus is the stone that will never be moved.  If there is anything false in your life, the trials of this live will sweep it away.  Build your life on the Rock.  For it will stand against the refuge of lies we all harbor begrudgingly.  My pastor quoted William Barclay this week who said [my paraphrase] that there is no standing still with God.  We are either moving forward or we are sliding back.  Let us move towards God, the living Fire, the purifying One.  What I leave behind will be burned and I may suffer loss emotionally in my heart, but I will be saved to an impregnable, unmovable kingdom with joy ever before me.  This same joy awaited Christ as He kept His eyes on the joy awaiting Him through His shame (Hebrews 12:2).  Let us keep our eyes on Him as we walk toward joy, though it leads us through the valley of suffering (Psalm 23:4,6).  For if we stay in the valley, we will never reach the peaks of perspective, where divine vistas overflow a heart that dreams.