The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon.

“Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

—Psalm 95:7–8

When the Lord prompts us to do something or we feel the nudge of the Holy Spirit telling us not to do something, it’s easy to silence that voice in the moment.

“This is just a small thing; it won’t matter. I’ll listen next time.”

When we do this, we harden our hearts and make his voice a little bit quieter every time.

If we continue down this path, we slowly quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19) and show that he is not truly our Lord. John 10:27–28 says, “My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life.”

If we are his sheep, we will follow him, and if we love him, we will keep his commandments (John 14:15; John 14:21; John 14:23). We won’t do it perfectly and there is so much grace for our stumbles, but our true desire and sincere effort should be to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord (2 Peter 3:18), to move beyond the elementary teachings and become mature believers (Hebrews 6:1), and to learn, by practicing our faith, to discern between good and evil (Romans 12:1–2).

Every tiny whisper the Lord speaks to us, whether it’s through his Word or the Holy Spirit, is taking us down a path closer toward that maturing, but hardening our hearts to those whispers will take us away from him. The small steps along that path are just as important as the big ones. 

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