Hard Hearts

 Scripture:

“Remember what it says: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.””  ‭Hebrews‬ ‭3:15‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Observation:

The author of Hebrews says here that when we hear God’s voice, not to harden our hearts like Israel did when they rebelled.  He associates hard hearts with rebellion.  Nobody wakes up one day and decides to rebel against God.  They just allow their heart to harden a little bit because of things around them.  As the heart hardens, it doesn’t feel what it use to feel and doesn’t respond to the voice of the Lord like it once did.  It then ends up in rebellion.

Application:

A hard heart is dangerous in our relationship with God.  Our job is to keep our heart soft and pliable.  Hearts get hard when things don’t go the way we feel like they should.  Hearts get hard when we cry out and God doesn’t answer like we think He should.  Hearts get hard when we do what we want instead of what we know He wants us to do.  The only way to keep our hearts soft and pliable is to respond quickly when we hear God speak and to spend time in His presence.  We must allow His word to penetrate our hard hearts and open ourselves to Him and trust Him, even when it feels like He hasn’t done what we think He should have.

Prayer:

Father, let my heart be tender and soft before You.  Let me never have a hard heart, which leads to rebellion.  Help me to always be sensitive to Your will, Your ways, and Your leading.  Help me to understand that Your ways are not my ways and You that You don’t have to do the things I want You to do.  Let my heart remain soft before You all the days of my life.  Let me never grow hard.

Yours,

Jeff