Join us this Sunday! In-Person 9:00am & 10:45am, Online 9:00am, 10:45am & 5:00pm

Join us this Sunday! In-Person 9:00am & 10:45am, Online 9:00am, 10:45am & 5:00pm

Join us at the next Sunday worship service:
In-Person
9:00am & 10:45am,
Online 9:00am, 10:45am & 5:00pm

Are We Ignoring God?

“The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they ignored all his warnings.” – 2 Chronicles 33:10.

The Coronavirus has separated the world into basically two camps. The first camp is the rule followers, people who wash their hands and maintain a safe distance and shelter in place in hopes of flattening the curve. The other camp is the people who have ignored the warnings and have been storming the world’s beaches, bars, and burger joints in spite of the risks presented by the Coronavirus. The experts can’t understand why this group of people has chosen to ignore their advice.    

The fact is, no one likes to be ignored, especially God. But it happens, sometimes completely, sometimes selectively. The decision to accept our Lord and Savior is an important, critical first step in your walk with God. But the next step is to get to know God intimately. It is easy to postpone or even ignore that step. That is not to say the reasons for putting off that step are not noble. You have been busy providing for your family, pursuing your career or helping people. But where is God in the process? When you truly love someone you don’t ignore him or her.  

If you love somebody, you spend time with them, listen to them,  spend quality time with, return their calls, engage and check up on them to name a few. Love pays attention: it engages, in a marriage or any relationship, disregard, and love cannot co-exist.    

If we ignore somebody it also means that we are not very passionate about their interests. We see them as a distraction. The same can be true of God. If you feel with you have been ignoring God in some part of your life, take a spiritual audit of your life. See if there is some part of your walk with God where you have been blasé. Does your week reflect that the Lord has a prominent place in your life? Do I inadvertently ignore my busy schedule or do I pursue intimacy with Christ?

Imagine, for a second how it must grieve God when we ignore Him. Think of how He must feel when He dwells in us but there are parts of our life when we ignore Him.  Or consider how He must feel when His guidelines contained in the Book He gave us are ignored.

It is hard to ignore God if we keep Him in our thoughts moment by moment. We do that by reading the scripture He has given us; by spending time in prayer and listening for His still, small voice; by thinking about His presence; by serving others in His name. Then we can echo the words of the Psalmist, “I cling to you; your strong right hand holds me securely.” (Psalm 63:8).

Discussion Questions:

  1. 2 Chronicles 33:10 (ESV) says, “The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention.” What does it mean to you to pay attention? 
  2. What can we do this week to pay more attention? 

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