Love to hear from and know who is listening
In our camper we have an over zealous smoke alarm. Any time I cook anything it starts blaring at us. In the tiny space of our camper the alarm is ear piercing! Even though I know the alarm is coming it still manages to catch me off guard and it just grates on my nerves. In order to shut it up I turn on the exhaust fan in the bathroom. I open windows and I wave a dish towel at it. Then because you get distracted by trying to shut off the alarms and you ignore what you have on the stove top and you really do burn you dinner. Usually before the camping trip is over we have taken the smoke alarm down and removed the batteries, just to shut it up. Isn't this similar to how we sometimes want to deal with the sin in our lives. Even though the Holy Spirit is making our sins blatantly apparent to us all we want to do is plug our ears and fan the smoke of our sins away so that we can pretend they don't exist. We just want to jerk down the annoying smoke alarm, remove the batteries and enjoy our sins and pretend as if they are okay.
Matthew 13:15 NIV For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.
Identifying a man who works hard with his hands is always easy. Shaking the hand of a farmer, carpenter, or a mechanic will immediately give the sensation of a hard and callous hand. The roughness of the hands comes from repeated friction of implements and tools against the skin. A couple summers ago I helped my father pick up square bales, by the end of the day I had blisters on my hands. In most cases callouses are a good thing because they protect you from pain— they’re a tough outer layer that stops the harshness and coldness of the world from hitting your nerve endings. There is a process to becoming calloused. It actually starts with something hurting. Then little hurt, by little hurt, your body builds up protection against the thing that’s causing pain. When I worked daily with my hands they were more callus and frequently I would pass something at the dinner table to my wife not realizing how hot it was and she would drop it. My callous hands couldn't feel the heat, but her hands were much more sensitive.
Our hearts can become callus just like our hands. It happens little by little when we ignore the Holy Spirit, and commit those so called “little sins” into our lives. Why is it we measure our sins as little and big. What are some of those so-called little sins. Lying comes to the top for me. Embellishing the story I am telling because I want those hearing it to be impressed with me. Anger certainly must be at the top of the list as well. Those moments of road rage I have when the light in front of me is green and the idiot driving the car in front is not paying attention! But hey these are just little sins right. I haven't killed anyone, I haven't robbed any banks, I haven't cheated on my wife sexually, or have I?
Matthew 5: 28 NIV But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If we continue to ignore our sins, our hearts will be come callous. Don't take the batteries out of your over zealous smoke alarm. It is much better to be aware of the danger, than to burn up in a fire. If you ignore the Holy Spirit for to long you become used to the negative effects of your sins and don’t even notice anymore! You become, “Callous!”
