The Pain of Refusal

Luke 13:34 - O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills
the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How
often would I have gathered your children together as
a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you
would not!
Hebrews 3:7-8, 12-13 - Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts
as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the
wilderness"; Take care, brothers, lest there be in any
of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall
away from the living God. But exhort one another every
day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you
may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

If we have lived any length of life at all, every one
of us have experienced the pain of being refused. From
children who are told "no" to that toy they want for
Christmas, to being refused a romantic interest or
being turned down for a job we really wanted or needed,
we recognize that it can bring pain. All of us can
relate to the pain of rejection. Similarly, we can hear
the pathos in the voice of our Lord Jesus in Luke 13.
He expresses unconditional love to His city, His people,
Jerusalem. His desire is to shepherd them, to protect
them and nurture them, like a hen does for her chicks.
He then announces the tragic words, "and you would
not"!

This is nothing new for the people of Israel. We find
an account of the rebellion in the wilderness with
Moses in Hebrews 3. Remember, God had used Moses to
supernaturally take His people out of bondage to
Pharaoh in Egypt (a picture of the world and lostness
in sin). Providing all their needs for the journey
(not their wants; they complained about not getting
those), God led them on a difficult journey (through
multiple rebellions such as worshiping the golden calf
at Mt. Sinai, revolts against Moses, etc) to give them
"a land flowing with milk and honey". The Promised
Land is NOT a picture of heaven or eternal life. They
already had that when they crossed the Red Sea. It is
a picture of the VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIFE,
the abundant life in Christ.

The account in Hebrews 3 clearly refers to Christians.
"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts as in the rebellion." Can a believer today
harden his or her heart to the voice of the Lord?
Yes and most of us do this every day. Why do we refuse
the quiet promptings of the Holy Spirit to live the
inside-out life? The sad underlying sense of our
sin may not be that we "commit" something horrible, but
that we refuse to respond to "the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus". He has so much better for me across
the river from the wilderness. Perhaps I refuse Him
because of fear of the unknown. Perhaps I refuse to
fully embrace the "kingdom life" because deep-
seated sins of pride, arrogance, prejudice, or envy.
The truth is we allow our own selfishness to trick us
into refusing the meek, lowly, noble, generous,
loving, life-giving, powerfully-expanding, redemptive
Christ-like life that we know God has for us.

Our refusals to hear and follow the voice of God
have painful ramifications toward our relationship
to God, to others, and to ourselves. The pain in
relationship to God is that we ultimately hurt the
heart of the One who gave His life to purchase our
salvation. This should grieve us the most, because it
will always cause some kind of breach in relationship
with Him. Secondly, when we refuse the still, small
voice of the Holy Spirit, it so often means that
we fail to have a spiritual impact on the lives of
those around us, whether that is our immediate
family, friends and loved ones, acquaintances, or
those people groups around the world that have
never once heard the name of our Lord Jesus. When
we fail to live as Christ-obedient people in the
world, we fail to reflect the true image of the
Lord. Those around us then do know see who Jesus
really is. Finally, our refusals bring pain to
ourselves because we miss out on living the
abundant life God has re-created us to live. The
longer we "harden our hearts" to the voice of God,
the less likely it will be that we will obey
His voice and enter into the victorious Christian
life God has secured for us. The writer of
Hebrews indicates that an increasingly
"unbelieving heart" will lead us to "fall away"
from the living God. The more time we
"waste" in refusing the Lord, the less will be our
reward here on earth and in heaven.

The good news is that forgiveness through the
blood of Christ is available to every believer
TODAY. The Holy Spirit says "respond right now
in agreeing with God about your sin". I John 1:9
says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness". Allow the Word of God
to wash over your thoughts every day (Eph. 5:26).
Practice hearing and responding to the voice of God
in your life moment-by-moment (I Thess. 5:16-24).
Be accountable to a small group or individual man
or woman in your response and obedience to God
(Heb. 3:13). May the Holy Spirit of God take away
His pain and our pain in our refusals to the inner
promptings He give us and lead us into an ever-
growing life of being used by Him to impact the
entire world with the redemptive power of Jesus
Christ!