Hearing what we want to hear…

I can be victim of my own hearing at times.  When carrying on a conversation, I will put words into the mouths of the other person because it’s what I want to hear.  It makes my world complete when I can hear things said the way I would say them, or the way I would interpret them.  We all can find ourselves doing this at times, to the point that we rewrite history in order to make it more palatable to us.  We forget the things we do not wish to think about, and we dwell on the good things because it makes us feel better.  This is fine, until we carry it a bit too far.  We want to rewrite the Word of God so that it, too is more palatable, easier to live by, or just softer because that’s the way we like it.  God’s Word was not meant to be edited in order to take out the tough and “not so loving” portions so that we could easily digest the true meaning.

“I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book. He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.  Revelation 22:18-20(NASB)

In these trying times of uncertainty, we struggle with living the life of a true Christian.  This life is not the easiest or “better tasting” way to live.  This life can be extremely difficult and demanding.  When we choose to live a life pleasing in the sight of our God, we are making the choice to follow His Word to the letter.  We are promising never add nor take away from His Word.  We are promising to live by what was written thousands of years ago in order to reap the reward of His promises.  The last thing we want is to add or subtract “from the words of the book of this prophecy.”  I, for one, do not want to be the cause of the next big plague. 

The Bible is the Word of God.  We cannot, nor should not dispute this.  We should also never, ever attempt to improve on it or to take things from it.  It was written to reflect God’s plan for His people.  I will always believe in God’s promises, including the one in Revelation where He tells us to leave His Word alone.  Modern society thinks it can rewrite history in order to make it easier to move forward, forgetting all of our past discretions.  We go along with this because it makes us feel better.  We will even take this to our Bible, reading into God’s Word just what we want to get from it, and not what God wants us to get.  This happens when we have an issue or we are struggling with a situation, we open our Bible and begin to search for the right passage or the right chapter that will say what we want to hear.  What we need to do is to pray, open our Bible and be lead to the passage we need.  God has a way of letting us know where to look and what to listen to.  He will help us “hear what we want to hear because He loves us.” 

 

“in the world, not of the world”