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Our Freedom

One of the freedoms that man has received from the Lord is the ability to refuse to listen to the Lord. Man has exercised that freedom many times. Here is an account of one of those times.

But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts [as] an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts. (Zechariah 7:11-12 KJV)

But God has the same kind of freedom that He has given man. Here is His response:

Therefore it is come to pass, [that] as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts… (Zechariah 7:13 KJV)

This is a dreadful statement. He had said, “I will not listen” 200 years earlier and 100 years earlier in Isaiah 1:15 and Jeremiah 11:11. There is something He will listen to, though. God will listen to a prayer of repentance. But repentance is more than the words “I’m sorry.” Repentance is a change of heart, mind, and action. Look at the conditions for repentance in Isaiah 1:16-18:

Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (KJV)

(An excerpt from On Being a Christian by Jim Wilson)

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