TODAY IF YOU HEAR THE VOICE OF GOD, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEART. Josimar Salum
If you think this message is special to you, I wanted you to know that I wrote it for myself. It's just that I sincerely wish for my heart to remain broken and contrite. It's just that I know that Jesus forgave me a lot, very much, and whoever He forgives like that loves Him a lot, just the same.
This warning of love is written sometimes in the Bible: "If you hear the voice of the Lord your God, do not harden your heart."
In our entire life there is an invisible dispute for our heart. Who owns it? To whom does he pay attention? Who does it belong to?
"My son, give me your heart.", thus says our heavenly Father.
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all the heart, and thy neighbor as thyself."
Ever since we were a child, life's experiences hurt us, one by one, and the enemy of our lives always offers us some salt to throw on these wounds. The salt of hurt, unforgiveness, demanding, selfishness, indifference, offense, bitterness and, finally, hatred.
Our Father, on the other hand, offers the balm of forgiveness, brokenness, forgetfulness, goodness, faith, hope and love.
If you say you love, you forgive. There is no love without forgiveness. This is so simple. And forgiving is releasing the other, acting with him as if nothing had happened, it is reconciling, restoring and loving. And what doesn't depend on you, God will intervene and perform a miracle.
If you demand perfection from another, demand the other's explanations of behavior as if you have done nothing, instead of offering a chance to start over, you are bound to harden and have the perpetual company of executioners who are indeed messengers of Satan to torment you.
When I unilaterally demand perfection from another, I want to throw my own imperfection on him. Paying attention to the mistakes of others, however, will not diminish my own responsibility in the slightest. This goes for a friendship, for a family relationship and all your relationships.
And this has even more weight in the marital relationship. Letting your guard down, consciously listening to the voice of the Lord, denying yourself will save not only your marriage, but your very life.
It is God's word! It is God's word!
And there are those who get used to living like this for years and years, with a brutish heart. He started by closing a window of the soul and ended up closing all the windows and doors. For this reason it must not harden at all. Don't play with the root of bitterness. It sprouts, and it grows, takes root like a plague. Watch your heart!
Do not leave for tomorrow or for next week to open your heart to the Lord for Him to soften you. This is why the Lord of Love invites you today: Today is today… TODAY if you hear the voice of the Lord your God, do not harden your heart.
“Whoever remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.” Proverbs 29:1
A stiff neck, that is, one that does not bend the "nape" of the neck in reverence or submission is said to be someone who will be broken suddenly without being curable.
You are creating within yourself a list of demands and you are detaching a rosary of the other's wrongdoings and without realizing, you are in a globe of death with no way out. You keep a book of records of wrongdoings taped to your chest and you don't realize that invisible roots of bitterness are weaving your soul in itself until you become a mummy without any expression of life.
You will fill yourself with legitimate and illegitimate rights until you will lose all awareness that we are all on the same road in life and that if it is not for the Grace poured out by Jesus, we will never conquer the world.
So I want to do myself a favor, and hear Father's message of love.
"Son, you've heard My voice, so don't harden your heart."
Oh! Father! Give me a heart with child's skin, tender, thin and soft. A virgin heart, unsuspecting, bearing no grudges, keeping no record of anyone's evil. Give me, oh Father, a heart like Yours.
#ASONE
Translated from Brazilian Portuguese by: Filipe S.S. Gouvea
