Dealing With Hardness of Heart // Wisdom to Transform Your Life, Part 4

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Pride and hardness of heart go hand in hand. Pride is the enemy of humility. And pride … pride stops us from laying hold of God’s wisdom, which causes us pain and in turn, hardens our hearts. It’s a vicious, vicious circle.

Heart disease is rather a big deal these days. A diet high in refined carbohydrates, combined with a lack of exercise is taking its toll.

The problem seems to be hardening of the arteries. But it’s not a condition that affects many young people, because it takes time for arteries to harden. Decades in fact, of dietary abuse. And the reason that arteries harden is as a defence against the effects of the stuff that we’re putting in our mouths. Eventually, they rupture and there you have it – a heart attack or a stroke.

The Bible talks about the hardening of our hearts, heart disease if you will, too. Several times.

The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse – who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings. (Jeremiah 17:9)

I mean when that’s what’s going on in your heart, when that's the way you’re abusing yourself, your heart is going to get diseased. It’s going to harden. Here’s how it goes. Here’s the vicious circle.

Pride and hardness of heart go hand in hand. Pride is the enemy of humility. And pride … pride stops us from laying hold of God’s wisdom, which causes us pain and in turn, hardens our hearts, like scar tissue. It’s a vicious, vicious circle.

And when that’s what’s going on inside us, we’re not prepared to take advice from anyone. We’re hunkered down, defending ourselves, just trying to survive … and the wisdom of God is something that we just don’t want to accept.

Have you ever found yourself in that sort of a situation? That place where you’re so damaged, that you can’t receive the good advice of others or the wisdom of God that’s actually going to make things better?

It’s often the way things go. In protection mode, our heart hardens and we become unteachable. Unaccepting of the wisdom that will set us free.

Is your heart desperately sick? Be honest. How teachable is your spirit? How open are you, right at this moment, to accept the powerful wisdom of God that will set you free from the maladies that are plaguing your life?

Has sin so wracked you with pain and suffering that your heart feels as hard as stone? If you’re in that desperate situation, then I have a Word from the Lord for you today. It’s a prayer that can set you free from this dark and difficult place.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:10)

I remember a time in my life when I was completely unteachable. A time when I was so proud, and yet so damaged, that my heart was as hard as stone.

There’s nothing worse than a hard, unteachable heart. It stops you from receiving the healing wisdom that God has for you. That’s why God wants to give us a clean heart. That’s why God wants to put His Holy Spirit in us.

To heal us from the inside out. To do some radical heart surgery, to remove the diseased tissue, and replace it with healthy tissue.

I remember the very first heart transplant, by a surgeon Dr Christian Barnard on the 3rd of December, 1967. The heart recipient only survived for 18 days, such was the state of the technology and medical knowledge back then.

These days, whilst not quite a routine operation, heart transplants almost always succeed, adding years of healthy life.

And that’s the key. It’s not just life, but healthy life, vibrant life, abundant life that we’re looking for here. And that’s the sort of life that God wants you to lead. But you can’t have it with a diseased heart. And just as King David, after committing murder and adultery, prayed for a clean heart, a right spirit, an infilling of the Holy Spirit – what we discover elsewhere in God’s Word is that that’s exactly what God wants to do for us.

A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

In other words God wants to give you a new heart – taking the heart of stone, the diseased heart out, and replacing it with a healthy heart of flesh. And not just a new heart. When we have a new heart, when our heart is soft and healthy again, it will be open to receive a new Spirit, the Holy Spirit – so that we can receive the wisdom of God. So that we can receive the wisdom of God.

How’s your heart? Hardened by years of abuse? Hardened by pain and unforgiveness? Scarred by the hurts that you’ve suffered in the past? Damaged to the point that it’s difficult, almost impossible, to receive the healing wisdom of God?

Well, today I have some good news for you. God wants to give you a new heart and a new Spirit. All you need to do is to believe His Word and ask Him for it.

He is ready, willing and able to heal your life, to replace your heart, to fill you with His Spirit and to open you up to receive His wisdom into your heart.

When you think about it, the heart is where we live. It’s the seat, the centre, of our emotions.

Of course, the heart is a physical organ vital to life. That’s why we use it as a metaphor for the centre of who we are. Everything flows out of our metaphorical heart. If the heart is diseased, our lives are diseased. If the heart is healthy, our lives are healthy.

If our heart is filled with evil intentions, then our lives will live out that evil. That’s why Jesus said that murder begins in the heart. Out of the overflow the heart speaks. What happens in our hearts first, is later acted out in our lives. Our hearts, and our hands are connected.

As I look back on my life there have been times when my heart has been completely closed to the things of God; the wisdom of God. And the only way that I’ve discovered to deal with that is to draw near to God.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:8)

You and I can work and work and work at improving ourselves, but have you noticed, it just doesn’t work, no matter how hard you work at it.

So, when you feel as though God is a million miles away (He isn’t of course, it just feels that way) then it’s time to tackle a step towards Him. It’s time to set a bit of time aside each day to pray. It’s time to open His Word and read it, reflect on it, receive it.

It’s not easy at first. It’s like a young infant taking her first faltering steps towards her dad. But, just think of what that does in the Father’s heart. When we take a few, faltering, unsteady steps towards Him, He takes some mighty, God-sized steps towards us.

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

That’s His promise to you today, in case you’re feeling as though He’s a million miles away. Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you. And in that place, He will purify your heart, He will cleanse your hands, He will remove the double-mindedness and doubt from you in a way that you could never do for yourself.

What’s the matter with us that we think we have to clean up our act before we go to God? Sure our hearts might be filthy dirty, diseased, hard as stone. Sure our hands might be covered in filth as well.

It’s for sinners like you and me that Jesus died.

What you and I need is wisdom that penetrates the heart. And that’s exactly what Jesus has ready and waiting for you.