Tuesday, December 22, 2020

What We Need to Hear Again and Again

During my morning quiet time with God, this passage struck me: "We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away." (Hebrews 2:1)

In a bad news world, it's hard to remember the good news-the Gospel-that God loves us so much He sent His Son to die under condemnation for our sin and rise as God the Father's affirmation that all who trust in Jesus with their lives will not be condemned for sin, but live with God now and, more perfectly, in eternity.

This is probably why Luther said, "We need to hear the Gospel everyday because we forget it everyday."

It's perilous to drift away from God. That's true not only because of the eternal implications. It's also true because such drift can incite us to go along and get along with a world mired in the sins of materialism, sexism, racism, sexual immorality, self-worship, the worship of ideologies, people, pleasure, things, and so on. When we grow deaf to God, all we can hear is the devil, the sinful world, and our sinful selves screaming in our ears.

This is why the lifestyle of daily repentance and renewal is so central to discipleship. I need to keep "hearing" to God's Word so that He can create and build faith in Christ within me. (Romans 10:17)

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