What kind of a person are you?
Hebrews 2 opens with an exhortation to "pay more careful attention to what we have heard."
What is it that we have heard?
The writer says it is the message of a great salvation! That great salvation is found through trust in the person and work of Jesus.
The author has full confidence in the saving power of the message. He knows it can safely steer the ship of our wandering souls if we do not ignore it or neglect it. That message is contained in the progressive revelation of God in the Bible.
In America it is difficult to get people’s attention about anything that matters much less the need to pay attention to God’s Word.
Our culture has developed the "cult of busyness." We do not like to linger over a book and meditate on it day and night (Psalm 119). It seems like a waste of time rather than a corrective for our misuse of time.
We seem to enjoy and even take pride in announcing to anyone who will listen how busy we are. When the subject of Bible study comes up we shrug and suggest we would be interested if only we were not so busy. We assume that a lack of diligence in pursuing understanding of God’s Word is not only understandable but excusable.
I find Hebrews 2:1-4 sobering and helpful to counter my own cult of busyness thinking.
"Donald Grey Barnhouse sums up this message in words that are pointed but true: ‘It is the Word of God that can establish the Christian and give him strength to overcome the old forces and to live the new. It can never be done in any other way….You cannot find even one Christian on this earth who has developed into strength of wisdom and witness in the Lord who has attained it by any other means than study and meditation in the Word of God.’
If we want to hold fast to Christ and advance in the faith, we must become people of the Book–the Bible–giving careful attention to its message all the days of our lives." ((Richard D. Phillips, Hebrews, P & R Publishing, 2006, p. 51))
Oh, I want to be a woman of the Book rather than a woman of Busyness!