You have today to hear and obey

Hebrews 4:6-7 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” The Holy Spirit fixed a certain day, today, when warning His people not to harden their hearts when God speaks. Today is an important day spiritually. It’s the only day we know for certain that we have besides the Day of Judgment. Yesterday is gone, and we can’t do anything about it. We don’t know for certain that we have tomorrow. So we need to realize the significance of being given another “today” by God. God is a communicator. The author began his letter saying God has spoken. He created the world through His word (11:3), and He runs the universe by His word (1:3). He also speaks through the Bible. When we read the Bible, we are hearing God’s voice. We have a responsibility to guard our hearts and make sure our hearts receive His word with joy and an intention to obey. The only way that is possible is if we humble ourselves and ask God to give us the grace to listen, hear, and obey. Jesus told His disciples in John 15 that if they would abide in Him, ask Him to bear fruit in them, He would do it so the Father might be glorified through the display of His fruit of love. That’s living to love with Jesus. The generation of Israelites of whom the Spirit of God spoke in this verse failed to enter God’s rest because of disobedience. We’ve learned they disobeyed because they didn’t believe God’s word. The word of God was not united with faith in the day God spoke. Our encouragement today is to believe or trust in Jesus to do for us what He commands us to do, namely, love one another as He loves us. He lives. We have eternal life dwelling within us, we only need to abide in Him. Receive what He gives us today in terms of our circumstances and relationships. Then receive His word to guide us in our responses to those circumstances and the people He puts in our paths. For this to happen, we must daily engage with Him in His word, meditate and remember it, trust the Holy Spirit to bring it to mind when we need it, and then be ready to apply it. As we live to love with Jesus, we love His word. We let it abide in us, as Jesus admonished His disciples, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). We “let the word of Christ richly dwell within” us, as Paul instructed the Colossians (3:16). This keeps our hearts soft and receptive to the presence and power of Christ so that His life may be manifested in us for the glory of God.