Is Your Heart Hard or Soft?

Have you ever thought about whether you have a soft of a hard heart? What kind of heart do you have? Our heart is basically the whole essence of who we are, you know?

Over and over in the Bible the phrase “hard hearts,” or “hardened hearts” is used. Have you noticed, or ever thought about it?

For example….

~In Exodus, it says Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not let the people go.

~ In Ezekiel chapter three, God actually says the people have a hard head and a stubborn heart.

~Also in Ezekiel, God promises to remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

~Jesus told the Pharisees that it was because of their hardness of heart that they were given the commandment concerning divorce.

Those are just a few, but there are so many more.

Have you ever thought about what does the act of hardening your heart look like?

I think we have all done this as a defense mechanism at times, and I’m not saying it’s always wrong to do so. Sometimes it’s just survival. Some of us do this more than others.

Isn’t this what we do when we feel like crying in public?

Everyone does this. I mean, no, it’s not on the same scale as hardening your heart to thousands of slaves trying to escape to their homeland and making them stay. But it’s a way to relate to the emotion.

I know I will sit in a giant room full of people and willfully harden myself to not cry at something I desperately want to cry about. Sometimes it’s just impossible, and the tears sneak out anyway. All you want is for no one to see, but inevitably, someone always does. Instant embarrassment.

When you were young and your parents made you do something you didn’t want to do, you kind of harden your heart against their direction. You know?

All those moments of unmercifulness and no sympathy

Those are all “hard heart” moments.

I think soldiers do this when they go to war. They have to harden their hearts against the horrible tragedies that they see in order to protect their own brain.

There is a certain level of heart hardening that we do that is protective of ourselves or others, that maybe we have to do sometimes for a moment, but it HAS to be kept at a temporary level. If maintained for long, it only causes destruction.

Ultimately, God wants from us a soft, malleable heart, a heart open to love, compassion, and understanding, a heart that is open to God.

That is the kind of heart I want to have and the kind of heart I want my family and my children to have, a soft heart.

God doesn’t judge mankind by how nicely we fix our hair or what brand of shoes we wear, or even how tidy our clothes look. He judges us by our heart.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

Luke 10:27

“…the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

1 Samuel 16:7

This scripture reminds us to examine our hearts and our priorities. Take some time to pray, read God’s word, and draw closer to God. He is always found by those who seek him.

Do you have a hard heart or a soft one?