“Take care brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.”

The Hebrews writer is clear on this issue. The responsibility for staying in God’s grace is not God’s but ours. God is one hundred percent faithful, and by His own nature cannot change that characteristic. Again, the problem is and always has been the weakness of humans. The way to look at this evil heart is to see it in the light of unbelief. Not trusting God is the root of disobedience. Later in the book, the writer will tell us, “And without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him,” (11:6).

The unbelieving heart rejects the idea of reward. One must reject the reward if he rejects the God who rewards. Lack of faith is a serious issue, and a quick reading of the words of Jesus in the New Testament will remind us of how great an emphasis He put on the need for faith, even the size of mustard seed.

The fall spoken of in this verse was due to unbelief. Anyone who believes in God and His word would be worst than a fool to tempt or test God with disobedience. With that in mind, we must believe that it is the deep-down belief in God that helps us obey or if we continue to be disobedient it is the deep-down belief that God is false that leads us to do that. No sane, responsible person would know that there is a God and be foolish enough to disobey Him.

Task for Today: If you are having trouble being obedient to God, you might want to check out your level of belief. Do you really believe that He exists? Do you believe He is truthful? If so, then you know that He will deal with your disobedience with wrath and that you will not enter His rest but will instead enter eternal punishment. The greatest deterrent against disobedience is trusting that God will do what He said.