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You stiff-necked people . . .
you always resist the Holy Spirit.

— Acts 7:51

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God Speaks After We Turn

Have you ever woken up with your neck so stiff you have to turn your whole body just to look at someone? For me, it happened a lot when I was young and trying to bench too much. I’d turn my head to look at the weight during my press, and it’d just freeze on me, which meant I’d spend the next couple of days walking around like Frankenstein.

It’s easy not to realize how much you depend on that small movement until it’s gone. Someone calls your name, and instead of glancing over, you must pivot your entire frame. It’s awkward, and you miss things happening just off to the side.

The Danger of a Stiff Neck

That’s the picture God reaches for when He describes His people: three times across Exodus 33–34, the word “stiff-necked” appears. Twice God says it. Once Moses says it back to Him, pleading on Israel’s behalf.

As I was sitting with this passage, I was struck by the truth that authority lives in the neck.

Think about how one guides an ox or horse—it’s turned by the neck. The neck is where direction happens. So, to be stiff-necked isn’t mainly about being stubborn in an abstract sense. It’s about refusing to be turned. Refusing to let God redirect your gaze.

God wants to lead His people into a land flowing with milk and honey. Into promise. Into goodness. But we can’t follow where we won’t turn to look. The tragedy is that a stiff neck doesn’t just resist correction; it misses the miracle.

Turning Toward God’s Voice

Now, contrast that with Moses and the burning bush. His response was, “I will turn aside to see.” He turns his neck. And only then—“When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him.” The call came after the turn.

I wonder how much we miss simply because we won’t turn our heads. We stay locked on the thing in front of us, the worry we keep rehearsing, the version of the story we’ve already decided is true. Meanwhile, just off to the side, a bush is burning.

Respond

This week, ask yourself, What is God trying to turn me toward that I keep refusing to see? What goodness, what faithfulness is sitting just outside my line of sight? Don’t stay rigid. Turn aside. And look.

Closing Prayer

Father,
You are slow to anger and abounding in love,
patiently leading me away from my rigidity.
Forgive me for the ways I’ve refused to be turned,
help me fix my eyes on your faithfulness rather than my fear.
Loosen what has grown hard in me.
Turn my neck toward Your goodness.
Let me, like Moses, turn aside to see,
and in the turning, hear You call my name.
Open my eyes to the miracles I’m missing,
the burning bushes just outside my gaze.
I choose to look at You today.
In Jesus’s name, Amen.

Praying with you,

Addison

P.S. If you’re new to these prayer guides and don’t have the Words with God book and/or 40-day Prayer Journal, those are great resources for living prayerfully. You can get them on Amazon, the Messenger Store, or wherever books are sold.