DEVOTION - MONDAY, AUGUST 15, 2011

MONDAY, AUGUST 15, 2011

“Hardened Hearts”

In His Presence: Proverbs 19:20-21

BY

TONY EVANS

“Just as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the days of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried Me by testing Me . . . I was angry with this generation, and said, “They always go astray in their heart, and they did not know My ways”; As I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter My rest” ’ ’’(Hebrews 3:7-11).

For many years the sons of Israel lived in the land of Egypt. Eventually the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites and forced them to make buildings of bricks. They suffered terribly until finally God raised up a leader to guide them back to the Promised Land, where God had taken Abraham hundreds of years before. Moses led them out of Egypt and into the wilderness of Sinai. There they began to complain bitterly about the lack of food and water and tried God’s patience. God said their hearts were hardened.

The Hebrews’ hearts were hardened because they were tricked by sin. Sin leads us to stop believing God. We believe the sin instead. One of the reasons why many of us are in our present dilemma is because we have stopped believing God. We have developed hearts of unbelief.

How do we know that we have been taken in by the deceitfulness of sin? Does the sin bother us less often? When evil doesn’t anger and upset us—when we have gotten used to it—our hearts have been hardened.

One Minute Please
Sin provides short-term gratification leading to long-term disaster.