{"id":4962,"date":"2026-08-04T14:12:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T20:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=4962"},"modified":"2026-08-04T14:13:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T20:13:00","slug":"what-does-it-take-for-the-lord-to-get-your-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=4962","title":{"rendered":"What Does it Take for the Lord to Get Your Attention?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bible Verse for Today <\/strong>\u201c\u2026..And you still didn\u2019t return to me, declares the\u00a0Lord.\u201d <\/em>Amos 4:6 GW \u201cPrepare to meet your God.\u201d<\/em> Amos 4:12 GW<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What does it take for the Lord to get your attention? This is the question that the prophet confronts Israel with. However, it is stated in the first person. God is addressing His people through the prophet in a very personal way. This is not a prophet telling the people; this is the Lord confronting His people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Amos 4:6-11 contains statements about all the ways the Lord was trying to get the attention of His people and to bring them back to Him. His desire was for them to forsake their idols and to serve Him alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Famine: no rain on the crops. One field had rain, but theirs did not. They had no water. The crops they did have were infested with mildew and eaten by locusts. The Lord sent plagues. Their young men were killed in battle. Some cities were destroyed just as Sodom and Gomorrah had been. After each of these, we find the statement, \u201cand still you did not return to me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 God\u2019s people, then, like some people now, fail to allow life’s events to turn them to the Lord. Perhaps for the first time, perhaps returning to the Lord. The Lord speaks in many ways, but one of those is through natural events. In Israel\u2019s situation, these natural events were the consequences of their rejecting the Lord and following Him with full-hearted devotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          As I thought about this, I was reminded of what we see in the Book of Revelation. As the events of the tribulation take place, we find on more than one occasion verses like these,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent<\/strong> of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, 21 <\/sup>nor did they repent<\/strong> of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.<\/em> (Revelation 9:20,21 ESV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recall in years gone by when rural areas were in a drought, community members would often gather to pray for rain. When our founding fathers were deadlocked in establishing a new nation, Benjamin Franklin stood and called them to prayer. I remember when I lay in a hospital bed, totally paralyzed by West Nile Virus, I prayed,\u00a0\u201cLord, now that you have my attention\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often, life events cause people to turn away from the Lord. However, many events in life should compel us to turn to the Lord and find the security and life that are complete only in a personal relationship with Him and in complete submission to His Lordship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As difficult as it is to realize, we have a choice to come to the Lord or be confronted by the Lord. The Lord is patient and long-suffering, but there is a day when all will stand before Him. The writer of Hebrews caution was, \u201cdo not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness.\u201d<\/em> (Heb. 3:8 NIV) The Lord\u2019s call to His people as they prepared to enter the promised land was,\u00a0\u201cChoose life.\u201d \u201cChoose blessing.\u201d <\/em>(Deu. 30:19)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does it take for the Lord to get your attention? Be quick to always turn to Him and trust in Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bible Verse for Today \u201c\u2026..And you still didn\u2019t return to me, declares the\u00a0Lord.\u201d Amos 4:6 GW \u201cPrepare to meet your God.\u201d Amos 4:12 GW \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What does it take for the Lord to get your attention? This is the question that the prophet confronts Israel with. However, it is stated in the first person. God […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4963,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4962\/revisions\/4963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}