What is God teaching you today? If you haven’t thought lately about what God is teaching you at any time, let alone today, it might be time for some spiritual recalibration. Don’t be embarrassed by admitting a need to recalibrate. After Israel’s ups and downs, God is very accustomed to His people needing some adjustment. In fact, using the experience of Israel, God provided a simple recalibration tool.
This tool was put in place as a result of rigorous staleness on the part of Israel. They were just weeks past the miraculous delivery out of Egypt and already had grown so stale that a little scarcity of water led them to conclude God had left them to die of thirst. Their monumental complaining even spurred God to name the location of their griping Massah and Meribah (
God did more than simply name the spot, though. He used that event as an example of how to restore freshness in our walk with Him. In fact, the Bible contains two warnings from different eras of God’s revelation, both rooted in the event of the Exodus.
Scripture Text
As you read these two passages, focus on what the writer is preparing the people to do and the instructions that will help them do it.
Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did.
But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast. So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.”
Think About It
Many generations after Israel’s historic complaining, as the psalmist was preparing the people for worship, he invoked the warning generated by the Exodus events. A few generations after that, the writer of Hebrews prepared his readers to embrace the new things God was doing through His Son and invoked the same warning. Several generations later, a youth worker—that would be you—is reading YouthWorker Journal, preparing to prepare students to be used by God. Let that same warning ring in your mind.
Apply It
To heed this warning—if you hear God’s voice, do not harden your heart—we need two things: listening ears to hear God’s voice and soft hearts to respond to what we hear. Listening ears and a soft heart is the antidote to encroaching staleness and the pipeline to teaching from God. With Israel serving as our example, the best spiritual recalibration might come in the form of a “rebellion purge”—eliminating from our lives anything that could be connected to rebellion, such as pride or ministry busyness that breeds resentment.
Encourage your students to challenge you regularly by asking what God is teaching you. When your students see you with an answer to that question, they’ll begin asking the question of themselves. As you and your students heed that warning from generations ago, any staleness will subside and you’ll be making a lasting impact for generations to come.
