Tag: hardened hearts

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Mark Devotionals

Lord, do you sometimes sigh?

Making God sigh

The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, demanding of him a sign from heaven to test him.

Sighing deeply in his spirit, he said, “Why does this generation demand a sign?” (Mark 8:11-12)

Aware of this, [Jesus] said to [his disciples], “Why are you discussing the fact you have no bread?

Don’t you understand or comprehend? Do you have hardened hearts? Do you have eyes and not see; do you have ears and not hear? And do you not remember…

Don’t you understand yet?” (Mark 8:17-18, 21)

How often, Jesus, do you sigh deeply at my stubbornness, at my unbelief?

How often do you sigh deeply at my hardened heart, at my eyes that don’t see and ears that don’t hear? At my failure to remember. At my lack of understanding?

And yet, somehow, you’ve never given up on me.

As with the blind man, you keep touching my eyes until I can see. You keep touching my ears until I can hear. You keep touching my mind until I can understand. And you keep touching my heart until it softens.

Thank you for your incredible grace.

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Matthew Devotionals

Hardened hearts

Matthew

He told them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts, but it was not like that from the beginning. (Matthew 19:8)

Jesus said, “Leave the little children alone, and don’t try to keep them from coming to me, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14)

Father, as I head into this new year, I pray for a soft heart, the heart of a child. A heart that trusts you. A heart that believes your way is best. A heart that does not cling to or make excuses for its sins.

I don’t want to settle for second best, for what you “permit.”

I want your very best in my life. I want what you intended for me from the very beginning.

Show me the places where my heart is hardened and take your plow to my fallow ground. Let your blade dig down to the soil of my soul this year. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Acts Devotionals

Receiving feedback

Acts

In last Sunday’s message, my pastor talked about the importance of receiving feedback from God and others.

As we look at today’s story, the Christians in Jerusalem thought Peter needed their feedback, criticizing him for entering the home of a Gentile.

But actually, they were the ones who needed the feedback, as God was teaching them the need to share the gospel with all people.

What was their response? First silence, as they thought about what Peter had said. And then,

they glorified God, saying, “So then, God has given repentance resulting in life even to the Gentiles.” (Acts 11:18)

Their response reminded me of a different story.

In Mark 3, Jesus challenged the Pharisees’ way of thinking concerning the Sabbath.

Their response?

They were silent too. But theirs was a different kind of silence. They hardened their hearts, and in doing so, they both angered and grieved Jesus. (Mark 3:1-6)

How about you? What is your response to feedback?

Does Jesus rejoice at our response, or does he grieve at our hardness of heart?

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Mark Devotionals

Hardened and dulled hearts

Mark

As I look at these passages, I see so many cases of hardened and dulled hearts.

The Pharisees had hardened and dulled hearts, asking for signs from heaven, despite the numerous miracles Jesus had already performed. (Mark 8:11-13).

The disciples, despite twice seeing Jesus provide bread for huge crowds, had hardened and dulled hearts, not understanding that Jesus would take care of their needs. (Mark 8:17-21)

Peter and the disciples had hardened and dulled hearts, not understanding that Jesus had to die. Peter went so far as to rebuke Jesus for saying that He did. (Mark 8:31-33, 9:31-33)

The father of the demon-possessed child had a hardened and dulled heart, one moment saying he believed, and the next admitting that he still couldn’t completely believe. (Mark 9:24)

It was because of dull and hardened hearts that God allows for divorce. Far better, for example, for a wife to get a divorce than to suffer abuse from a husband with a hardened heart.

But God’s ideal was that husband and wife become one in a loving union. (Mark 10:5-8)

The rich young man had a hardened and dulled heart, unwilling to let go of his riches in order to follow Jesus. (Mark 10:17-23)

How often are our hearts hardened and dull?

Despite seeing all Jesus has done for us, we still fail to believe that he will provide our needs. Instead, we keep asking for visible signs that he is with us. “God if you’re really with me, do this for me. Do that for me.”

Or Jesus tells us the same truth over and over, and we still can’t grasp it.

We struggle with our faith, one moment believing, one moment not.

Or because of our hardened hearts, we settle for second best instead of God’s ideal.

Because of our hardened hearts, some of us are unwilling to let go of this world in order to follow Jesus. We may do a lot of “good things”, but we never truly give our hearts to him.

What is the medicine for a dull and hardened heart?

God’s grace.

By his grace, God did what was impossible for us: he saved us. (Mark 10:26-27)

And by that same grace, he can soften all the remnants of our dull and hardened hearts.

All we have to do is ask.

To be like that father who said, “I do believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

Or like Bartimaeus who said, “Lord, I want to see.” (Mark 10:51)

Lord, help my unbelief. Help me to see and grasp the truth that you love me and want my best. Heal my hardened heart, and help me to trust you completely. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Categories
2 Corinthians

What holds our hearts

2 Corinthians

There are some people that think 2 Corinthians was actually two or even more letters pieced together. Looking at this letter, I can see why, though I still believe it is one unified letter.

Still, at one turn, Paul talks about his reconciliation with the Corinthian church, and at the next he talks about his remaining troubles with it.

The reason for this is probably that while the majority of the church had indeed repented, there were still a number of people there that had their reservations about Paul and his credentials as an apostle. The question is why?

Paul says here,

We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you.

We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us.

As a fair exchange–I speak as to my children–open wide your hearts also. (2 Corinthians 6:11-13)

Paul essentially says, “We have been nothing but open with you. We’ve laid our hearts all on the table for you. And yet, you still withhold your affections from us.”

The ESV translates verse 12 this way,

You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. (2 Corinthians 6:12)

The latter translation is more literal, and while a bit more obscure in meaning than the NIV, is much less interpretive.

While the NIV’s interpretation may be correct, I actually think what Paul is saying is this:

You may find it difficult to open your hearts to us because of how we’ve dealt with you.

“You may think us harsh for how we’ve dealt with you and the sinners and false apostles among you. You may feel like we have shut you out by doing so.

But really you have shut yourself in because of the things that you are holding on to.

You’re holding on to your sin. You’re holding on to these relationships with these false teachers. You’re holding on to idols in your life.

And so when we rebuke you for these things, you shut us out. These things you cling to are what’s keeping you from opening your hearts to us.”

How about you? What holds your hearts?

Sometimes, people leave the church and the fellowship of believers. Or they may have a falling out with someone they once considered a close brother or sister.

And one reason is that these brothers and sisters have rebuked them for their sin. As a result, they feel rejected by those who have rebuked them.

Being rebuked by fellow Christians can be hard. And unfortunately, sometimes, Christians can go too over the top in their rebuke, failing to rebuke with gentleness. (Galatians 6:1)

I do wonder if perhaps even Paul had failed in this respect concerning the Corinthians.

He was a sinner too after all, and he had had previous failings in his personal dealings with Mark, for example. (Acts 15:36-39)

Nevertheless, Paul truly loved the Corinthians. But because of his rebuke and the Corinthians’ own wrongful affections, they failed to see the love he had for them and shut him out.

So my question is this: Can we see beyond the painful words of our brothers and sisters, recognize sin in our lives, and release these things we are holding on to?

Or are we so in love with these things that it causes us to reject further fellowship with those who love us?

In short, how do you respond to rebuke in your life?

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Romans

Refusing to believe

Romans

A couple of days ago, I talked about the paradox of salvation. That though the path to salvation is so easy, yet it is difficult.

All we have to do is put our faith in God and Jesus’ work on the cross and we’ll be saved. And yet so many people don’t.

We see this problem with the Jews. Paul writes,

But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” (Romans 10:16)

That’s not just the problem with the Jews; it’s the problem with most people today.

To this very day, these words ring true. “Lord, who has believed our message?”

Paul then says,

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)

In other words, two things are necessary to be saved. To hear the message of the gospel and to believe it.

What is the problem? Why don’t so many Jews and others believe. Is it that Christ has not spoken? Or is it that they have not heard?

Not at all. Paul writes,

Did they not hear? Of course they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” (Romans 10:18)

The quote here, from Psalm 19:4, talks about how the heavens declare the glory of God.

Paul then applies this to the gospel, that Jesus’ words had gone into all the known earth.

Paul then asks,

Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? (Romans 10:19)

Rhetorical question here, the answer being, “No, they didn’t understand.”

And Paul goes on to talk about the irony of the work of God. That those God revealed himself to first (the Jews) rejected him, but when God went on to others, those others did believe.

So Paul quotes Isaiah who said,

I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me. (Romans 10:20)

God is specifically talking about the Gentiles here. That though the Gentiles were going their own way and were not even seeking God, God revealed himself to them and they accepted him.

The truth is, though, verse 20 can equally be applied to the Jews.

They weren’t really seeking God. They had started worshiping other gods in Egypt. (Joshua 24:14)

Yet God revealed himself to them. But what was their response when God revealed himself to them?

God said of them,

All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. (Romans 10:21)

Why didn’t they believe? They saw all the miracles. The ten plagues in Egypt. The parting of the Red Sea. The manna in the desert. And so much more. They had every reason to believe.

Then Jesus came. He performed miracles. He cast out demons. He preached words of wisdom such as they had never heard before. And yet they rejected him. Why?

The others (unbelieving Jews) were hardened, as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day.” (Romans 11:7-8)

This is a quote from Isaiah 29.

I talk more about this here, but the idea from this passage is that the Jews first blinded themselves. And so God said, “You don’t want to see? Fine. Be blind.”

That’s what happened with the Jews. For hundreds of years, despite all God did and said, they refused to believe. So God gave them over to their unbelief.

That’s the danger for all who hear the gospel. If we harden ourselves to it, sooner or later, God will say, “Fine. Dwell in your unbelief,” and he gives us over to the results of that unbelief: death.

So don’t harden your hearts to God’s message of salvation. Don’t listen to it with a heart that is skeptical and hardened from the beginning.

If you do, you will only blind yourself and you will die, separated from God for all eternity.

Instead, open your heart. For only in Christ and his message of salvation will you find life.

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John John 12

Before it’s too late

John

Sometime people put off following Christ thinking they can always do it later. But in this passage, we see the danger of that.

Jesus in thinking about the cross and his determination to follow the Father’s plan cried out,

Father, glorify your name! (John 12:28a)

In a voice that all could hear, the Father replied,

I have glorified it and will glorify it again. (John 12:28b)

Yet though all could hear the voice, it seemed that few if any actually heard it.

Some said it was thunder. Others said it was an angel. Why couldn’t they understand the Father’s words? John later comments,

This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:

“He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn–and I would heal them.”

Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him. (John 12:38-41)

I’ve explained this passage in another blog, and essentially what it comes down to is that the people couldn’t hear the voice because they had already hardened their hearts to Jesus.

Some hardened their hearts because his background as a carpenter from Nazareth was not what they expected from a Messiah.

Others rejected him because he exposed the hypocrisy of their religion.

Others rejected him because his teaching went against their religious rules and traditions.

And when Jesus performed miracles that proved who he was and the truth of his words, they tried to explain it away saying he did them by Satan’s power, or in this case, by trying to say it never really happened. That they were just imagining things.

The problem was, the more they hardened their hearts, closing their eyes and ears to the truth, the more blind and deaf they became.

And so Jesus tried to warn them, saying,

You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you.

The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.

Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light. (John 12:35-36)

In other words, “Your time is short. If you don’t soften your hearts, you will become blind forever. Put your trust in me and the light I bring while you still can.”

Jesus says the same thing to you. He was lifted up on a cross that all people might be drawn to him and be saved.

But if you harden your heart to him, if you close your eyes and ears to what you know is true, the time will come when you can no longer recognize the truth though it’s right in front of you. And then it will be too late.

As Paul wrote,

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:2)

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Luke Luke 9 Mark Mark 6 Matthew Matthew 14

I respect you, but…

The gospels

As I look at this passage, Herod is a puzzle to me.

He apparently wasn’t happy with John the Baptist when John condemned him for taking his (that is, Herod’s) brother’s wife and marrying her.

It’s possible, though, that he would never have done anything, even arrest John, if Herodias, his wife, hadn’t prodded him too. She actually wanted Herod to kill John, but even Herod refused to go that far, although he had apparently wanted to at first.

Part of his refusal was his fear of the people. (Matthew 14:5). But perhaps as time went on, he gained a respect for this prophet who was anything but a “yes-man” to the king.

It says in Mark that Herod had come to recognize that John was different, that he was a righteous and holy man. And for some reason, he liked listening to John.

You have to wonder why though, because John probably drilled him for his sin time and again. Whatever John said, it “perplexed him.”

Whether it was John and his courage to condemn the king to his face that perplexed Herod, or whether it was something else that John said, I don’t know. But one thing that never happened was that Herod never repented.

And the day came when, on his birthday, his daughter danced in front of him, probably a very lewd one, and he was so pleased that he promised her up to half the kingdom if she asked. On consultation with her mother, she asked for John’s head.

Her request “distressed” Herod, but out of his pride and unwillingness to look bad in front of his guests, he gave in to her request and killed John.

I don’t know if it happened, at a guess not, but I can just imagine his final conversation with John.

“Sorry about this. Nothing personal, you understand. I really do respect you, and I don’t want to do this, but my daughter asked for your head, so…”

It’s easy to condemn Herod for his actions, but how often do we take that same attitude with Christ. We hear his words. Something in them stirs our hearts.

But instead of following his words, we ultimately turn our back on them and Him. Rather, we put priority on our pride, our family, or other things in our lives.

What about you? Do you go to church and listen to the message, or do you read the words of this blog, and say, “There’s something there. Something about it feels strangely good even though it stings to hear it. I really respect this messenger. He really is someone to be admired.

“But….”

And ultimately turn your backs on what God is telling you?

It’s not enough to respect the messengers God sends you.

It’s not enough to admit they are (hopefully) godly men.

But insofar as they proclaim the words of God, you need to take action. To let those words penetrate your heart and cause repentance and change. Because God will hold you accountable for what you have heard and know.

What do you do with what you hear?

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Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 12

When we refuse to invite the Spirit in

The gospels

With Jesus condemning the Pharisees for saying that he was casting out demons by Satan’s power, the Pharisees then demanded a sign from heaven to prove he was doing it by God’s power.

Of course, even had he done so, they still wouldn’t have believed, so Jesus refused.

How do I know they wouldn’t have believed? Because while he refused to give them a sign right then and there, he did give them a sign to watch for, the sign of Jonah.

He told them just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and nights and came out, so would the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth, and come out.

This of course was referring to Jesus’ death and resurrection. But when Jesus rose from the dead, the Pharisees still hardened their hearts and refused to believe.

So again, Jesus condemned their hardness of heart.

He told them that the people of Nineveh and the queen of the South (the queen of Sheba) would stand in judgment over them because when they heard the message of Jonah and Solomon, they turned to God.

But now Jesus, who was greater than Jonah or Solomon, was here, and they refused to believe.

He then gave an illustration of what would happen if they refused to believe in him and rejected the gift of the Spirit that he would later give all believers.

When Jesus came to this earth, he overcame the powers of hell, and among other things cast out demons.

But he warned the Pharisees and all Israel, “Though I cast out demons and overcome the powers of hell, though I set all in order in preparation for the gift of the Spirit to come in, if you refuse him, then the powers of hell will return in force and your spiritual state will be worse than ever.”

Why? Because you’ve tasted the power of God in your life, you’ve come into contact with the only one who can save you, and you rejected him.

He then brings back an illustration from the Sermon on the Mount where he talks about how our eyes are the lamp of our body.

Here I think he’s talking as much of our spiritual eyes as our physical ones. And he’s saying, “Are you really seeing? When God speaks, can you see the truth he is giving? When you look at me, do you see me for who I am?”

If you do, Jesus says you will be full of light. But if not, you will be filled with darkness. So he warns,

See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. (Luke 11:35)

How about you? Have you put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Have you invited the Spirit into your life?

If you harden your heart towards God, you leave yourself vulnerable to Satan’s destructive work in your life. But if you soften your heart and let the Spirit in, you’ll find life.

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Luke Luke 6 Mark Mark 3 Matthew Matthew 12

What grieves Jesus

The gospels

This is one of those stories where each of the gospels gives us a little piece of the puzzle to what happened. Here’s my take on the whole story taking into account each of the stories.

Jesus was in the synagogue, and he sees a man there with a shriveled hand. But he also notices the scrutiny he’s getting from the Pharisees and teachers of the law, and he knows that they’re waiting to see if he will break their rules concerning the Sabbath and heal the man. (Mark 3:1-2)

So Jesus deliberately calls the man to come up, and as he does, the religious leaders ask,

Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? (Matthew 12:10)

Jesus, as he typically does, responds to the question with a question of his own.

I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? (Luke 6:9)

This was of course an unanswerable question for these leaders. They would have sounded stupid if they had said it was wrong to do good on the Sabbath or to save a life. How can you dishonor God on the Sabbath by doing good and saving lives?

But if they had said it was lawful, Jesus would have said, “You’ve just answered your own question,” and immediately healed the man.

On the other hand, there was no way they could say it was lawful to do evil or destroy life on the Sabbath.

So in the face of this unanswerable question, they remained silent. For as the old saying goes, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”

Luke tells us that Jesus looked around the room for an answer, but Mark adds a bit more information in chapter 3 verse 5. He says,

He looked around at them in anger…deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts (NASB — “hardness of heart”).

So Jesus probes them further, saying,

If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?

How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! (Matthew 12:11-12a)

In other words, “You are willing to help your sheep if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath? Which is more important, a person or a sheep? And if people are more important, how can you accuse me of breaking the Sabbath when I heal a man?”

So Jesus concludes,

Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:12b)

He then healed the man.

The irony of all this? Jesus had asked them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to save life or destroy it?”

And right after this event, on the Sabbath, the religious leaders started plotting to kill Jesus. (Mark 3:6)

But the verse that strikes me is Mark 3:5. That when Jesus saw these leaders’ hardened hearts, it grieved him.

They were so hardened by their legalism and by their traditions, God’s word and truth could not penetrate their hearts. Even when they had to know deep in their hearts they were wrong (as proven by their silence), they would not admit it.

How about you? You may not be as legalistic as the Pharisees, but are there areas in your life where you’ve hardened your heart to God?

You’re doing something wrong, or your way of thinking is wrong, and God has spoken to your heart and shown you your error and your sin, and you know you’re wrong. You know you need to change.

But instead, you cling to your old way of thinking. You cling to your sin. This kind of hardness of heart grieves God.

It grieves him because he wants so much better for you. It grieves him because by refusing to repent, you not only hurt him, but you hurt yourself, and those around you.

Let us have hearts softened to him. Receptive to his word. May we not bring grief to Jesus who died for us, but let us bring him joy.

Categories
Genesis

Hardened hearts

Genesis

It sure didn’t take long after Adam and Eve sinned for hearts to become hardened to God. Cain tried to worship God on his own terms, and God rejected it.

When Cain got angry, God said,

Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?

But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it. (Genesis 4:6-7)

Yet Cain hardened his heart to God and instead murdered his brother. When God confronted him, he didn’t even try to make an excuse like Adam and Eve did. All he said was, “My punishment is too great!”

One of his descendants Lamech was even worse. He murdered a man who offended him, and he wrote a song celebrating that fact.

He boasted in the song, “This man hurt me so I’m going to kill him (or ‘I killed him’). If Cain was avenged 7 times over for anyone trying to hurt him, I’ll make sure I’m avenged 77 times for someone trying to hurt me.”

How can a heart become so hardened?

The key is found in verses 6-7. We are in a constant battle with sin. Either we will conquer it or it will conquer us. But the more we give in to sin, the harder our hearts get.

Often times, when we’re first tempted to sin, God uses our conscience to warn us, and if we give in to sin, we feel guilty.

But if we don’t repent, our hearts become harder. The next time God warns us, he becomes easier to ignore, and we don’t feel so bad when we sin again. And if we don’t repent, our hearts become even harder.

Soon we get to the point where we can’t hear God’s voice anymore, and so we don’t feel any guilt at all for doing this act that once made us feel so guilty.

How do we avoid this? Keep a soft heart. When your conscience strikes you, don’t ignore it. Listen to it. Repent. Keep your heart open to God and his voice.

There’s an old song by Petra that I love. It says:

Don’t let your heart be hardened
Don’t let your love grow cold
May it always stay so childlike
May it never grow too old

Don’t let your heart be hardened
May you always know the cure
Keep it broken before Jesus
Keep it thankful, meek, and pure