April 28, 2026 Devo

One day, a little girl was playing with her toys. Her mother, who was folding laundry across the room, noticed the child's shirt was dirty and needed to be changed. After calling twice with no response, her mother called out as loudly as she could to her stubborn daughter, "Did you hear me, girl?" The little rebel smiled and answered, "Yes, Mom. I heard you. Well, my ears did, but my legs didn't!"
Does anybody have a child or grandchild like that? Has anybody ever been a child like that themselves? When I read our passage today, I thought of our oldest son. He seemed to have a hard-headed streak in him pretty much all of his life. He always thought he knew what was best. Or, even when he knew that what he was doing WASN’T right or best, he did it anyway. He used to make us CRAZY. What was truly frustrating was that all the things we were trying to get him to do were for his own good!
But sometimes we’re like that, too. God speaks, but we close our ears because we really don’t want to hear what He’s saying. He points out a habit that we need to quit. He shows us an attitude that really needs adjusting. He reminds us of someone we hurt or offended, whether intentionally or unintentionally. He reveals sin in our lives that needs to be confessed and repented of. But instead of embracing what He’s saying, we just keep on going as if we didn’t hear. Maybe, in the back of our minds, we justify it or rationalize it. We convince ourselves that it’s not a big deal. We assure ourselves that everyone has faults, so we’re entitled to have ours. So, like the mother with the little girl, God gets louder. And our hearts get harder. Along the way, we lose sight of the fact that God is smarter than us, and He really does know what’s best. Like a Good Father, God’s desire is for our GOOD. He’s not trying to hold us back. He’s trying to help us become all He knows we’re capable of becoming.
Take another look at our verse today, and ask yourself a really important question. Is there anything that God’s been trying to show you that you have been avoiding? Are there things that God has been saying, but you’ve not really been listening? Maybe today is a good day to give God an open heart and an open mind. Let’s lay our hard headedness and our hard heartedness at His feet and say those immortal words of Samuel, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” Let’s not wait until God has to do something drastic to get our attention. That’s God’s Word for you today.