Jer. 7:24 But my people would not listen to me.

Jer. 7:24  “But my people would not listen to me.  They kept on doing whatever they wanted, following the stubborn desires of their evil hearts.  They went backwards instead of forward.”

We need to think about what the Lord is saying to His people here.  Although in this context the nation of Israel is being addressed, I believe it applies to us as well.

It is our nature to want to do what we want to do and not what God wants us to do.  Ingrained within us is the tendency to be drawn away from God.  We naturally want to resist the voice of God that guides us to Him.  Whether you are a believer or not, it is true.  Our sinful nature left alone will cause us to slip backwards away from God.

Our only hope of resisting our urges is to work hard on our relationship with Christ.  We must resist the mindset that once we are saved we can coast our way to heaven.  We live by grace, but grace without works is no grace at all.  It takes effort to stay connected to God.  It is not possible to live in Christ and not be changed.  He changes our natural desires to resist and pull away from Him.  He changes the very direction of our lives.  He changes our desires so that we will listen to Him and not shut Him out.  The more we work on developing our ties with the Lord, the quicker our growth will be.

I don’t believe there is any neutral ground upon which we can stand as Christians.  We are either growing closer to Christ or we are drifting away from Him.  If we are drawing closer to the Lord we are consistently reading and meditating on His Word.  We are seeking ways in which we can become who God says we are and need to be.  We are seeking ways to apply to life what God tells us to do.  We as well are spending time in fellowship with the Lord, talking to Him and worshiping Him.

Listen to the Lord.  Let Him draw you closer.  Learn from Him.  Lean on Him.  Let Him have His way with you.