Zechariah 7: 8 – 14
Pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars selling drugs that prevent hardening of the arteries, a condition that can lead to heart attacks, which kill thousands of people every year. A more serious condition than hardening of the arteries, however, is hardening of the heart, and it cannot be prevented by any wonder drug. Ever had that problem? Have you ever let your dislike for someone or something fester and build that you didn’t care if it lived or died?If you have had this experience then you know the damage it can do to, especially to yourself.
13 “‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty.
14 ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land was left so desolate behind them that no-one could come or go. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’"
I have read these verses a few times and felt sorry for those that experienced that kind of desolation until I realized that I was one of those who were scattered by the whirlwind. I discovered that one area of my hard heartedness was towards Sen. Teddy Kennedy. It was a hatred that was bred since childhood for reasons that I will not go into; it was just a hatred that grew with each passing year. I said to anyone that would hear that bad things could not happen enough to him or his family. I was wrong and I told those close to me that I had let it go, but the truth is that I hadn’t. I had ignored the word of God and it was beginning to eat at me. I had to change.
11 “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears.
12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.
Recent events have changed my feelings. With the news of Ted’s brain tumor, I was able to pray for him and his family and ask God to forgive me for my feelings toward them. While it’s important to keep plaque from forming in our arteries, it’s even more important to keep our hearts from becoming callous to people who are important to God: widows, orphans, aliens, and the poor it’s crucial to follow our doctor’s orders to keep our arteries from hardening. But it’s even more crucial to obey God to keep our hearts from becoming hardened to the needs of others.
Ask God to bring to mind a person who needs the help of someone with a soft heart.
Pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars selling drugs that prevent hardening of the arteries, a condition that can lead to heart attacks, which kill thousands of people every year. A more serious condition than hardening of the arteries, however, is hardening of the heart, and it cannot be prevented by any wonder drug. Ever had that problem? Have you ever let your dislike for someone or something fester and build that you didn’t care if it lived or died?If you have had this experience then you know the damage it can do to, especially to yourself.
13 “‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty.
14 ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land was left so desolate behind them that no-one could come or go. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’"
I have read these verses a few times and felt sorry for those that experienced that kind of desolation until I realized that I was one of those who were scattered by the whirlwind. I discovered that one area of my hard heartedness was towards Sen. Teddy Kennedy. It was a hatred that was bred since childhood for reasons that I will not go into; it was just a hatred that grew with each passing year. I said to anyone that would hear that bad things could not happen enough to him or his family. I was wrong and I told those close to me that I had let it go, but the truth is that I hadn’t. I had ignored the word of God and it was beginning to eat at me. I had to change.
11 “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears.
12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.
Recent events have changed my feelings. With the news of Ted’s brain tumor, I was able to pray for him and his family and ask God to forgive me for my feelings toward them. While it’s important to keep plaque from forming in our arteries, it’s even more important to keep our hearts from becoming callous to people who are important to God: widows, orphans, aliens, and the poor it’s crucial to follow our doctor’s orders to keep our arteries from hardening. But it’s even more crucial to obey God to keep our hearts from becoming hardened to the needs of others.
Ask God to bring to mind a person who needs the help of someone with a soft heart.
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