Life can have a hardening effect on me at times. Things that once moved my heart or even created a tear become callous expected moments that I can thoughtlessly handle. No surprises. No weakness. No problems. Call me capable. While on the outside I may appear to handle life gracefully, inside my heart grows dead, breaking into infertile pieces of dry crust. And the Spirit struggles to penetrate.I can always tell when I slip into this rut. The symptoms are familiar. My compassion wearies, I smother my emotions, and I stop crying out (desperate dependence) to God. The last reason is the most detrimental, because the reverse is one of the remedies to this soul-deadening syndrome.
Living life in this withered valley slowly suffocates the abundant life Christ died to give us. Our inner lives which God created to flourish and glorify are the target of this disease. And I have seen this battlefield in more hearts than my own. Is there help? What can we do to cure our dead hearts? The advice I give is tested and found to be true. We must first cry out to the Living God - the great Heart Healer - to save us from this destruction.
Like I said earlier, one of the effects of a hardened heart is silence before God. We just don't say anything to God. Life rolls on as normal and our quiet times continue but with little results, and a sad heart.
One must consider the "roots" of this problem to find the solution. If the remedy is to cry out for mercy and help, then the problem begins when we stop crying out. I read something this morning that brought all these thoughts around full circle:
"For I am a jealous God, saith Jehovah, and I will not share My glory with another. Yea, I will pour out My goodness without restraint upon every open heart, and to all who cry unto Me, and I will be gracious. But My people have not cried: they have not called. Lo, they have been satisfied with the husks of this present world, and in an hour of indifference, they have allowed the pleasures of this life to fill that place which only belongs to Me. Yea, it hath displaced My Spirit, but it satisfieth not. O that they might return to Me..."
The seeds of this hardness results from idolatry. Running to something or someone else beside the Lord, embracing the world as a guide and friend, trusting in ourselves instead trusting in Christ. This is adultery of the heart. And participating in this will cause a heart to slowly harden.
This calls for deep repentance - crying out for mercy and help from our Father above. He sees what we've done. He knows our hearts are numbing Him out. He sees our sin. But He wants us to return. "O that they might return to Me..." Can you hear Him call? He wants your heart - your awakened heart - fully in His hands. I speak out of experience and struggle, when the Spirit is snuffed, our hearts harden. Let us return and open our mouths and cry to the listening Father, who is waiting for the prodigal to come back home.
