Would you ever describe yourself as an "impatient rebel?" Probably not, but if we examined ourselves (and I mean honestly) we would find a touch of that description in us. A quick glance at God's interaction with His special people (the Hebrews) shows us that the qualities of impatience and rebellion have plagued believers for centuries. We are no better then them.Jaro Minar preached on this a few weeks ago at the Nitra home fellowship. The basic message was this: God had promised His people a land of Promise. They didn't get it right away, the sun was hot and the food was a bit too campy for them after a few days of traveling. So what did these impatient children of God do - rebelled! They didn't trust in God's promise. They didn't think He could or would do what He swore to do. Scripture tells us they had hard hearts as a result (Hebrews 3:7-19, also see Exodus 17:1-7).
The writer of Hebrews warns us of having similar "hard hearts." That's a scary warning because it assumes that it CAN happen to any of us. How many times have you prayed for something and God was simply taking too long to answer? How many times have we taken the situations of our crazy lives and tried to take control? How many golden claves have we formed? How many faithless spies have we sent out? How many times have we complained about the simplest of inconvenience simply because we do not feel God is keeping up His end of the deal?
If you are like the Hebrews (and most of us are... including me!) we give up on God. We begin to rebel. We join Sinatra in doing it "my way." And like the Hebrews we end up wandering around aimlessly with hardened hearts towards God. There is a solution to this impatient rebellious streak in us - REVOLUTION! That revolution is the radical transformation of Jesus entering into your life and proving Himself to be all that He claims to be. He doesn't ask you to blindly trust in Him. He earns that trust and proves Himself faithful. The question is - will I let Him soften my heart? Will I choose to yield? Will I remain a common rebel or raise with Him as a reconciled revolutionary?
"Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." - Hebrews 4:7b
