“While it is said, ‘Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.” Hebrews 3:15
In my recent study of the 3rd chapter of Hebrews, I am more and more aware of the great temptation before us as Christians to allow our hearts to grow hard to the things of God. Hardness of heart is a characteristic of non-belivers, and explains their unwillingness and inability to see the evident truths of God. But it is not just a malady of non-Christians.
We, as believers, can be guilty of allowing circumstances and feelings to cause us to doubt God, doubt His goodness and His sovereign plans, causing UNBELIEF. We then, if we do not deal with those feelings, can become angry or disheartened with God, setting the stage for despair, doubt, and a hardening of our hearts toward God (and others).
You may be dealing with such a struggle right now. Maybe something has happened that you don’t understand, or maybe something has turned out differently than you expected. Or maybe you are faced with something that seems so “un-Godly” that you are sure that God has somehow betrayed you or failed you, or that He is not who He says He is.
Please know that this is a struggle that every Christian has faced on some level at some time in his/her life. It is a well-used trick of the enemy used to harden your heart toward God, and cause a chasm in your relationship with Him. You do no have to give in to it! Your God is a loving and gracious God, who watches over His children day and night. His care over us is beyond our comprehension, and He is always working for our benefit.
But God, in His great love and mercy, desires more than anything else, that you come to truly KNOW Him, and He will not cease to pursue you in the midst of any and every circumstance, to draw you closer to Himself. HIS FIRST PRIORITY FOR YOUR LIFE IS NOT YOUR COMFORT, BUT YOUR RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM!
I pray that you will begin this new year by getting on your knees before God, and asking Him to examine your heart, to show you if there should be any hardening that may have been forming there. Look below at some of the places you may need to safeguard:
Guard specially Against Heart Hardening: Hard hearts are unbelieving ones; therefore, beware of ossification of the heart. Remember that hearts harden gradually, almost unperceived. Beware of:
- Be constant hearing of truth without obeying it
- The knowing better, yet doing wrong
- The cherishing of unholy things
- The refusal to confess the wrong and to profess the right
- The refusal to take time to be in God’s word, learning about and renewing in your mind the truth of God’s loving character
Look carefully at the things you can do to get yourself back into right relationship:
Guard against an evil heart: As soon as the heart gets into an evil state – harboring sin, cherishing things which would not be excused in others, permitting unholy thoughts and desires to remain unchecked and unjudged – then beware! For such a heart is no longer able to believe in God.
- Make prayer a priority
- Examine yourself (looking intently for integrity and character of purity)
- Prove (provide evidence, show, verify) yourself
- Expose (reveal what is hidden) yourself to the searching light of God’s Spirit
- Cultivate an honest and good heart (pursue, improve by care, seek to develop)
“But encourage one another day after day…so that none of you will be hardened by deceitfulness of sin.” Hebrews 3:13
