Most of us dislike being ignored, in fact some of us get upset when we feel like we’re being ignored. We become frustrated when our concerns are disregarded, especially by loved ones. Yet this is often how we treat The Lord—the One who loves us the most. He is always attentive to every detail of our life, but we’re oftentimes distracted by our own interests to think about Him.

Our God—who formed us in the womb (Jeremiah 1:5), gives us breath and life (Genesis 2:7), and all we have (2 Peter 1:3) deserves our full attention. It’s sad to say but a vast majority of the world ignores Him. However, those of us who have received His diving mercy, forgiveness and grace must intentionally and consistently make Him our top priority.

Distractions come in many forms. Usually, it’s the pleasures and cares of this world (1 John 2:15-17) that cause us to ignore God. We’re often too busy pursing our own desires and agendas that we fail to stop and consider what pleases The Father.

There are many people who are ignoring Gods offer of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. If we look at the lives of those who choose to ignore Gods offer of salvation, to some it might appear as if they have it all and it may seem as if they’re not facing any diving judgement, but we must remember that repercussions aren’t always immediate. Ignoring the Lord is rebellion and idolatry in His eyes (Proverbs 1:24-33). Unless the offender turns to Him in humble repentance (2 Peter 3:9) and faith consequences will come.

King Manasseh of Judah stands as an example of what can happen when someone ignores God. Despite the example of his godly father Hezekiah, Manessah abandoned the Lord and led his people into idolatry (2 Chronicles 33:1-9). He was deaf to the voice of God and carried on with this evil for quite some time. Eventually God got his attention through a painful situation involving the Assyrian military (2 Chronicles 33:10-11). Soon Manasseh repented and began obeying The Lord instead of ignoring Him (2 Chronicles 33:12-13).

The most effective way to turn from ignoring God is when we learn to trust what The Lord desires for us as revealed in His word (Luke 9:23; Psalm 119:105). When we begin to think the way He does (Isaiah 55:8; 2 Corinthians 10:5; Romans 12:2), we’ll see our life through a filter of scripture and have a desire to please Him.

Are you sensitive to the voice of God or does He have to bring hardship and suffering into your life just to get your attention (Psalm 119:71; Joel 1:1-12)? Ignoring God is a serous matter, but God is merciful and responds to the cries of the truly repentant heart (Acts 3:19; Proverbs 28:13).

PEARLStoPONDER: Are there areas in your life where you are ignoring God?

2 Chronicles 33:1-20--Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. ² And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. ³ For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made Asheroth, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. ⁴ And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall my name be forever.” ⁵ And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. ⁶ And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ⁷ And the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever, ⁸ and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land that I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the rules given through Moses.” ⁹ Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.¹⁰ The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. ¹¹ Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. ¹² And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. ¹³ He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.¹⁴ Afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David west of Gihon, in the valley, and for the entrance into the Fish Gate, and carried it around Ophel, and raised it to a very great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah. ¹⁵ And he took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside of the city. ¹⁶ He also restored the altar of the Lord and offered on it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁷ Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.¹⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, behold, they are in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ¹⁹ And his prayer, and how God was moved by his entreaty, and all his sin and his faithlessness, and the sites on which he built high places and set up the Asherim and the images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the Chronicles of the Seers. ²⁰ So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house, and Amon his son reigned in his place.