Unbelief Barriers
“Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:7-19)
Thought For Today:
Throughout history, we see that the people of Israel were unable to enter the Promised Land because of their unbelief. This serves as a powerful reminder that unbelief can prevent us from receiving the promises and blessings that God has for us. It is not only in biblical times that this truth applies—many individuals today fail to reach their goals, graduate, or find success simply because they do not believe.
Consider the ten spies who brought back a negative report to Moses and the Israelites. They saw themselves as incapable of accomplishing what God wanted to do through them. In their own eyes, they were like grasshoppers—insignificant and fearful. This mindset kept them from entering the rest that God had promised. The writer of Hebrews tells us why they could not enter into their rest. He said, “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” (Hebrews 4:2)
Notice, they did not mix the Word of God with their faith. Faith without works is dead. Anytime you hear God’s Word, you must be ready to receive it and apply it to your heart so that it will come to fruition. The devil doesn’t want you to believe. He wants you to live in a state of doubt and unbelief. James enlightens us with these words: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:5-8) If you are one of those who have trouble with unbelief, you probably have already been inflicted with a grasshopper mentality.
