The Hard Heart – Part 4

The Hard Heart Part 4
Matters of the Heart Series

Are you subtly developing a hard heart? I ended the post last week by saying that life would either make our hearts: 1) hard, bitter and cynical, 2) soft, empathetic and tender, or 3) broken and ineffective. (Tweet this!) How do we know if we are developing a hard heart? Ask yourself these questions:

Have I become emotionally unresponsive?
Has my heart become rigid and cold?
Do I push the nudging of the Holy Spirit aside?
Do I hear the Word of God Sunday after Sunday, and do nothing about it? (James 1:22)
Have I become cynical and critical?
Are my eyes dry?

 

When we begin to harden our hearts, we slowly begin to “dry up” emotionally.  (Tweet this!) Some of us cry easily, some not so easily. However that’s not exactly what I am talking about. What I am referring to is the condition of your heart. Is your heart soft? Or are the eyes of your heart dry? There’s something about how the Holy Spirit works that releases the emotions. (Tweet this!) Consider these Scriptures:

“Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the prince of my people, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears; behold I will heal thee … “ (2 Kings 20:5).

“Thou numberest my wanderings: Put thou my tears into thy bottle; Are they not in thy book?” (Psalm 56:8)

“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Ps. 126:5).

“But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down tears, because Jehovah’s flock is taken captive (Jeremiah 13:17).

“Serving the Lord with all lowliness of mind, and with tears, and with trials which befell me … ” (Acts 20:19).

“For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be made sorry, but that ye might know the love that I have more abundantly unto you” (2 Cor 2:4).

These Scriptures indicate that there is a place for emotion and tears in the spiritual life of a believer.

If we are not responsive to the Holy Spirit, we will become unresponsive and cold and develop a hard heart. (Tweet this!)

 What area of your life are you protecting even though God is pressing in?
Of what are you fearful in regard to becoming vulnerable?
In what area are you becoming hardened, rigid and cold?
Are the spiritual eyes of your heart “dry?”
What do you need to do to be free?
Ask forgiveness? Abandon yourself to the Lord in praise and worship? Repent?  Quit complaining about how God is running your life?
Psalm 106:15 says, “And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul and disease and death.” Are you asking God for something that is not the best for you, but you are insistent? Or are you settling for less than the best because it is too much effort or not convenient or will require too much sacrifice? Are you willing to have “leanness of soul” just to get what you want or be comfortable?

 

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