Your heart can be soft or hard. Which is it right now?
A tender heart is absolutely necessary for the Christian. God warns us to guard our heart diligently because all of life’s actions and emotions flow through it.
Satan works restlessly to corrupt the heart through sin. He knows that if he can pollute our hearts that we are easy prey for his other traps.
A soft heart is essential. You won’t live for God without it. A soft heart is tender toward God. It’s grateful for God’s blessings. It’s attentive to His voice. It’s surrendered to His will. It’s kind and compassionate towards others. It’s saddened by sin and rejoices in righteousness. A soft heart wants to please the Lord in all things.
A hard heart is the opposite. It is selfish and unkind. It’s more interested in pleasing self than the Lord.
[shareable]When you sense a hardness in developing in your heart, confess it as sin, surrender to God anew, and ask Him to protect you from yourself.[/shareable]
A hard heart changes how you feel. It is ungrateful. It forgets God’s miracles and blessings to focus on the material. It is cynical and negative. It cares little for the things of God.
A hard heart changes what you do. It focuses on personal wants instead of the needs of others. It rebels against instruction. It resents godly encouragement. It is encouraged to continue in sin unconcerned about the warnings of God.
A Christian with a hard heart may go through the religious motions, but it is evident that their heart is not in it.
Here is the danger. You can begin to have a hard heart before you realize it. It is a deceptive process.
If you put a frog in boiling water, he will jump out. If you place the same frog in a pot of cool water and slowly increase the temperature, he will sit there and boil to death. The small increases in heat deceive him into believing nothing has changed and he is safe.
Every time you choose to sin, your heart hardens. Deceived by sin’s pleasure, you forget about the consequences. Each time you succumb to temptation, your heart gets a little harder, and it becomes easier to sin next time. Your appetite for sin grows, and your appetite for godliness shrinks. You can be out of God’s will with a wrecked life faster than you imagine!
Just as a frog can be boiled to death if the temperature of the water is raised slowly, your heart can be gradually hardened through through the deceitfulness of sin. A hard heart is deadly for a disciple of Christ.
I could tell you many sad stories of wonderful Christians who walked away from God with a hard heart. My heart groans as I remember those who at one time wept with a desire to please God who no longer care what God wants. How sad! It can happen to anyone.
Don’t let it happen to you! Protect your heart. When you sense a hardness in developing in your heart, confess it as sin, surrender to God anew, and ask Him to protect you from yourself.
[callout]“Lord Jesus, I don’t want a hard heart. Please forgive me of my sin. Deliver me from even the smallest sins that harden my heart. Use your Spirit and your Word to soften me to thy tender mercies and gracious blessings. Restore unto me the delight of doing thy will. Amen.'[/callout]
Today’s Bible Reading: Hebrews 3
Read this devotional series from the beginning here.