Will You Pay Attention?

Jeremiah 11 8a, 9-10

8a "But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts."

9 Then the LORD said to me, "There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. 10 They have returned to the sins of their forefathers, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their forefathers.

These are God's words to Jeremiah about both the House of Israel and Judah. God is angry because His people have not kept the requirements of the covenant made between God and Abraham. The people refused to listen to God, to obey Him, and to have no other God but Him. Even now, as God is threatening destruction, they do not heed his warnings and turn back to Him in repentance.

Are you listening to God? Are you paying attention to Him? Do you have an unobstructed view of your Creator?

Do you ever stop and really give thought to the fact that you were created by God? Do you ever pondered the fact that your Creator knows what is best for you and knows the best way for you to live your life? Do you know how much He loves you and wants to be your God? Do you understand His power and majesty? Do you really trust Him to provide and protect you?

He is your Creator and He is trying to communicate with you. He wants you to listen to Him, to pay attention to His words. He has truth and wisdom to share with you. He has corrections and warnings to tell you about so you will stay safe. He requires obedience and a heart for Him alone.

However, we don't listen most of the time. We get too busy to pay attention. We follow our own wicked heart and ways. We even create idols out of stuff to serve our own selfish desires. We let sin accumulate and don't take the time to clean out our hearts through repentance and it starts to cloud our perspective of God. We catch ourselves drifting further and further away from the God who created us and we fill that void with all kinds of other things that don't do anything eternal for us.

We don't act like we know where we came from. Our behavior is not consistent with that of a child of God. We fail to seek our Father's advice or wisdom. We decide not to heed correction. We bypass the important details that we should be paying attention to. We forget our Father!

Would you continue to reach out to someone who continually forgets you or continually rejects all the good you have to share with them? Probably not. Our tolerance for this kind of behavior toward us would be very short. How much more for the God who created us and invested His very own Son for us? How long should He be expected to wait for us to behave properly? How long should He be expected to wait for us to acknowledge and worship Him? How long should He be expected to put up with our rejection and misplaced adoration?

Oh, that God's patience with us may be longer than we would be willing to wait ourselves! Thank God for the work of Jesus who did what we could not, obey God!

May you acknowledge today from whom you have come and in whom sustains you all the days of your life. May you remember all that He has done for His people, especially the sacrifice of His very own Son for our salvation. May you be forever changed as you come to know your Father in heaven, and be inclined to act as His child, and as an heir to the Kingdom of Heaven.