{"id":5996,"date":"2022-06-11T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-11T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.honestreflections.net\/?p=5996"},"modified":"2022-05-10T09:14:39","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T14:14:39","slug":"stiff-necked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2022\/06\/11\/stiff-necked\/","title":{"rendered":"STIFF-NECKED"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2 minute read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Daily Reading:<\/strong> 1 Kings 8:1-66 ESV<\/a>, Acts 7:51-8:13 ESV<\/a>, Psalm 129:1-8 ESV<\/a>, Proverbs 17:1 ESV<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daily Verse:<\/strong> \u201cYou stiff-necked<\/em> people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!\u201d (Acts 7:51 ESV<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SKLRETRACHE (4644): <\/strong>\u201cObstinate\u201d[i]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obstinate resistance.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifty-two percent of Americans don\u2019t believe in Jesus\u2019 divinity, thinking Him a \u201cgreat teacher and nothing more.\u201d[i]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey exchanged the truth about God for a lie,\u00a0and worshiped and served created things\u00a0rather than the Creator\u2014who is forever praised.\u00a0Amen.\u201d (Romans 1:25 ESV<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

People have plenty of excuses for not following Jesus.  Critical spirits find plenty to criticize.  God forbid a Christ-follower make a mistake; people quickly point fingers when a believer falters.  And Lord knows, forgiveness does not come easily from others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pride goes hand in hand with stiff necks.  For some reason, admitting failures doesn\u2019t come easy.  Becoming vulnerable requires confessing our struggles, but we don\u2019t want to talk about them.  Pointing fingers at others take the attention off ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay humble.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we don\u2019t stay humble, we\u2019ll become stiff-necked.  Stubbornness affects our physical health. In a 2019 study, researchers found that 90 percent of heart failure people don\u2019t make the necessary lifestyle changes.[ii]<\/a> In other words, 9 out of 10 people refuse to make the minor changes essential to extend their life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Softening your heart towards Jesus means extending grace to others. We must pray for the stubborn people in our lives.  Ask God to soften their hearts towards Him.  Pray for other believers to come into their lives and help them accept the truth of Jesus in their hearts, allowing His Spirit to take up residency within them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People miss heaven because of the 18 inches between their heads and heart.  Pray for their stiff necks to become more flexible, allowing the reality of Jesus to change them forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[i]<\/a> Strong, J., & Strong, J. (2010). The New Strong’s expanded exhaustive concordance of the Bible<\/em>. Greek Dictionary of the New Testament<\/em> (p. 229) Thomas Nelson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[i]<\/a> https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/a-majority-of-americans-think-jesus-is-a-great-teacher-yet-reject-his-claims-to-be-god-301119281.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ii]<\/a> https:\/\/www.healthline.com\/health-news\/most-people-with-heart-failure-conditions-dont-follow-prescribed-lifestyle<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Check out my new release on Amazon<\/a>. Learn how I used prayer to control my emotions and develop healthier relationships in my life. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2 minute read. Daily Reading: 1 Kings 8:1-66 ESV, Acts 7:51-8:13 ESV, Psalm 129:1-8 ESV, Proverbs 17:1 ESV Daily Verse: \u201cYou stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!\u201d (Acts 7:51 ESV) SKLRETRACHE (4644): \u201cObstinate\u201d[i] Obstinate resistance. Fifty-two percent of Americans don\u2019t believe in… Continue reading STIFF-NECKED<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5996"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5999,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5996\/revisions\/5999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}