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Key Bible Verse: "Be sure to pay attention to what you hear. The more you do this, the more you will understand" (Mark 4:24). Bonus Reading: Mark 4:23-25

I will never forget Aaron's dug-in response: "Well, I'm still not doing what God said."

I explained to him that that was his choice, but this is what would happen. If he rejected the voice of God coming from deep within and chose to disobey his guidance, his heart would become hardened, and his ears would become dull.

If he continued on this path, there would be a day when he would never again hear the voice of God. There would come a day when he would deny that God even speaks or has ever spoken  to him.

But if he treasures God's voice however it comes to him—through the Scriptures, through his conscience—and responds to him with obedience, then his heart would be softened, and his ears would always be able to hear the whisper of God into his soul.

Aaron chose to stay, I'm grateful to say. If he had chosen differently, he would have begun the path toward nominal discipleship. Perhaps he never would have rejected the faith overtly. He might have even chosen to be a faithful attender at a church and been by everyone else's estimation a good man, but he would no longer be a close Jesus-follower.

—Erwin McManus in The Barbarian Way

My Response: Have I resolved to obey God's voice whenever I hear it?

Thought to Apply: The world can create trouble in peace, but God can create peace in trouble.  —Tom Watson (founder of IBM)

Adapted from Jesus, Lord of Your Personality (Howard, 2002) by permission.

Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Teach me, Lord, how to tune out distractions and to pick out and respond to the voice of Your Spirit.

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