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Do I have a hard heart?

by amyoberg

In the song Graves Into Gardens, there is a line in the second verse that says:

I’m not afraid to show you my weakness, My failures and flaws Lord you’ve seen them all

Are we afraid to show God our weaknesses or failures or flaws? Is it hard to confess our real feelings to God? When do we lay them before God and ask for his help to change our heart? Sometimes these unsaid, ignored weaknesses turn into a hardened heart.

It is not hard to see a person who has been taken over with bitterness—honestly it is hard to witness, watch or be on the receiving end. This is a good time in our world to talk about why God tells us “do not harden your heart” multiple times in the Bible.

Hearing this, everything in me bows my head to ask God…Do I have a hard heart? Truthfully, this is not an area I want to pay much attention to—most of the time I feel justified. The warning is that callousness starts somewhere soft and then builds into a hard heart. It creeps in without knowing it and the enemy turns it into a bitter root. But maybe there is room to bring these things before God so it doesn’t go on longer than it should.

What classifies as a hard heart? Let’s make sure we are all talking about the same thing. Can Christians have a hard heart? Yes! For me, it would be God asking me a question and my answer being “No!”, “no thank you.”, “lol, hard pass.” or any other version of “no” you can come up with. In my life, this is a danger zone and something I need to bring to God right away.

How can I bring it to God? Psalm 95 gives us some instruction and warning about a hardened heart. I have added some commentary.

Psalm 95

1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; (invitation to come to God)

    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. (He is the Rock, the only person worthy of bringing our stuff to).

2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving (with thanksgiving and honor first)

    and extol him with music and song.

3 For the Lord is the great God, (the Lord is to be praised because he is GOD)

    the great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, (from the depths to the heights He made it all)

    and the mountain peaks belong to him.

5 The sea is his, for he made it, (don’t forget how big God is)

    and his hands formed the dry land.

6 Come, let us bow down in worship, (another invitation to acknowledge who God is)

    let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; (make sure we kneel in reverence)

7 for he is our God (proclamation of who God is to us)

    and we are the people of his pasture,

    the flock under his care.

Today, if only you would hear his voice, (Listen to God in what He is saying)

8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah (rebellion),

    as you did that day at Massah (trials) in the wilderness,

9 where your ancestors tested me;

    they tried me, though they had seen what I did. (remember what God did in other people’s lives’ and our own)

10 For forty years I was angry with that generation;

    I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,

    and they have not known my ways.’ (We are prone to wander if we do not know who God is)

11 So I declared on oath in my anger,

    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” (There is no rest without God).

We are warned there is no rest without God. Hard hearts, rebellion or tested areas in our life will create unrest, anxiety, anger, impatience, snarkyness, harshness, and indulgence.  Bring callousness, hard heartedness, fear, failures, trials, doubts, and weaknesses to God. We are invited by God to bend our knee, remember who God is and worship Him in thanksgiving…then he can soften and change our hearts.

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