How's Your Standing With the Lord?
Good Morning,
We have had an excellent response at Vacation Bible School. I am thankful for our church family and their involvement to serve during VBS. There have been several salvation decisions with obvious opportunities for follow-up in the homes of those who have made decisions. Pray for the families of those who have trusted Christ that they may see the importance of supporting their child to grow in Christ.
Please pray for the last night of VBS, pray for those who are lost needing to trust Christ, pray for those who need spiritual revival, pray for those who are filled with spiritual apathy to be filled with a zeal for the Lord, and pray for those who need physical and/or emotional healing.
Job 9:4, "He (God) is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?"
Job is like all of us, he understands some things about the Lord. We do not have perfect and complete knowledge as individuals. We have everything necessary, however, in the perfect Word of God to navigate through life to obey God and do His will. Job did not have a complete cannon of Scripture to help him as we do. He understood God well enough to speak of His omniscience and His omnipotence, and to conclude that it is impossible for one to harden himself against God and prosper.
There are Biblical examples that speak of times when people hardened their hearts and it is obvious they did not prosper. Probably the first person to come to mind is Pharaoh. Repetitively, the Bible speaks of this man hardening his heart until God hardened it permanently for him. He died in the Red Sea. The children of Israel are another example, a group of people who were to be following the Lord, who hardened their hearts and provoked God during their wilderness experience.
Psalm 95:8-11, "Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.10Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: 11Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest."
The writer to the Hebrews gives the same warning: Hebrews 3:7-12, "Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 10Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. 11So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) 12Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God."
Don't make the mistake of those who hardened their hearts. Keep your heart tender, alert and alive unto God. Allow His Word and His Spirit to have your full attention. Remember it is impossible to harden your heart against the Lord and to prosper. Do you want a spiritually prosperous life? Then make sure your heart is tender and responsive to the Lord.
Have a great day walking in the power of the Holy Spirit!
Your friend,
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Pastor Mike Abbott