A Hardened Heart



 A Hardened Heart

By Liz King


Do you have a hardened heart? Have you ever had a hardened heart?  Has your heart ever been so hard you are oblivious to the truth or see what is really going on? Where is our heart focused and who do we allow to grow and lead our heart? Who are we allowing to feed our heart? Do we allow ourselves, the media, social movements, the world to lead, feed, and guide our hearts or do we allow God to guide, lead, and feed our heart? Do we trust Him with our heart? Can our heart condition affect how we see and receive truth?


I was Reading Mark 6:52    "for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened”  That phrase stopped me in my tracks. I never noticed it before. Jesus had just miraculously fed the 5,000 and then he was just walking on water and calmed a storm in front of the disciples. They couldn’t see who Jesus was or understand what Jesus had done because the Bible says they couldn’t understand because their hearts were hardened. By the time Jesus had fed the 5,000 he had already healed a paralyzed man, delivered a demon possessed man, raised a dead girl and healed a man from leprosy.  So, my question I pose to you today is what hardens our heart and is your heart hardened? Are you able to see, hear, and respond to Jesus' activity and truth in your life, or are we unable to identify or detect it?


Life brings many hardships, that’s part of living.  The same can be said in our spiritual life. We face warfare, attack, and persecution. Many people fall in the woah is me victim mentality because so much has happened to them and they never allow God to purge or deliver them from the things that harden their hearts.  Some people love to hold on to the pride, anger, pain, bitterness, and trauma that develops layers of build up on their hearts allowing it to harden. It’s like spiritual soap scum. For some their victimhood, pride, and trauma become their identity. Jesus doesn’t want us stuck in our victimhood, pain, bitterness, pride, anger, or trauma. He can’t move or work with a heart like that. We also can become so consumed in the world and its “truth”, drama, and distractions, that we just immerse ourselves in it and that drowns out the sensitivity of our hearts. It clogs our spiritual eyes and blinds our spiritual eyes. We become blind to Jesus and deaf to his voice due to all the spiritual interference.  Some of us get so consumed in us that we can’t get consumed in God. The focus on ourselves takes our focus off of Christ.


I remember when I first became a believer. I immersed myself in God’s word. I consumed it. The more time I spent with him, God would begin revealing things to me I had never seen before. My heart was fallow, freshly tilled ground and in a condition to receive his truth and insight. I was able to see him moving in my life and discern what was of him and what wasn’t. When I became a believer my hardened heart had been broken and humbled and I saw my need for him.  Before he saved me, I couldn’t see his truth, I couldn’t identify his movements in my life. I confused truths and beliefs and was unable to detect the truth from the lies. I couldn’t see who Jesus really was. As I grew in Christ at times I would begin to comprise my Spirit. At one point in my walk I began slacking in my prayer life and spending time in his word and my heart began to harden and I began distancing my heart from Him. 


We live in a world that is distancing itself more and more from Jesus. They begin chasing other gods and many placing themselves or others on the throne of their life. Many who have once tasted the spirit of God, have allowed their hearts to harden, turning from God completely.   They scoff at the truths of God and treat God as and his people as an enemy. Many Christians become idle, lukewarm, and complacent. Leaving them unable to see, hear, or identify The truth of God in their life. We then allow other things to feed our hearts rather than God, leaving our spiritually vulnerable and falling for false beliefs or truths.


It amazes me that the disciples had walked with Jesus, seen miraculous wonders and yet they still had hardened hearts. They could not see who Jesus was and were not able to understand what Jesus had done. It made me examine my own heart. Is my heart hardened? What have I allowed to harden my heart?  Have I let things in my heart preventing me from seeing what Jesus says, who he is or what he’s done? Have I built walls in my heart not allowing him to guide me in his truth? Have I put myself and the world before God?  Have I allowed the problems of my life, the hurt, the pain, the turmoil to blind my heart and dictate my beliefs and actions?  Have I allowed it to shift what I put my faith in?  I don’t want to go through my life unable to walk the path and purpose he has planned for me. I don’t want to be blind to his truth and movement in my life. I want to be able to see Him and identify him.  


Today, I ask you the question, has your heart been hardened? Are you struggling to hear and see Jesus in your life? Have you forgotten who he is? Have you become angry or bitter? Does fear and worry run your life? Have you forgotten who Jesus is and what he has done in your life? Have you allowed someone or something other than him to feed your heart and dictate your truth?  What is feeding you Spiritually?  Pray this with me. Jesus, make my heart fallow ground. Give me a heart of flesh and take from me my heart of stone.  Break any hardness I have allowed to build up in my heart. Reveal what is hidden in my heart and separating me from you.  Give me eyes to see and ears to hear you and your truth in my life. Help me identify what is of you and what isn’t. Fill me with your love and truth and let it overflow. Help my heart and put it in a condition that I am able to receive whatever you plant in it.  You and you alone feed my heart and no one else. Amen.



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