Breaking through a hardened Heart

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What does a hardened heart look like? Is a hardened heart curable? Do you have a hardened heart? If not, are you sure? I encourage you to take a look at a time when the disciple's were walking with Jesus, experiencing Him doing miraculous things right before their very eyes, and yet, even with all that He was doing, the Bible informs us that their hearts were still hard and full of unbelief.

When reading through Mark 6, we read about a time of amazing miracles in the life of the disciples. Jesus has done the miraculous feeding of the 5000 (Mk. 6:30-44), walked on water (Mk. 6:45-50), with Peter (Mt. 14:28-31), calmed the storm (Mk. 6:51), and miraculously teleported to the other side of the lake once He got into the boat (Jn. 6:12). And yet, even after seeing all of these miracles, their hearts were still hardened because of their unbelief (Mk. 6:52).

Even with Jesus doing BIG THINGS in their life, time and time again, they still were not convinced of who He truly was! Why is that? Well, the Bible tells us that it was because “their heart was hardened” (Mark 6:52). The Disciples were following Jesus with hardened hearts!

This is a place that each of us find ourselves in from time to time, traveling through life, walking side by side with Jesus, and yet, we have hardened hearts, due to our unbelief in certain areas of our life, or about certain promises for us from God’s Word for our life.

A hardened heart is a dangerous thing for a person to have, because it means there is no opportunity for a person to please God in that state, nor are they able to receive spiritual insight.

I was thinking about how a person with a hardened heart reminds me so much of a pet fish we once had, named Rio. We had a little Beta Fish that was given to my wife Lyndsey as a baby shower gift. Rio was the funniest little fish, because he was a fish with a horrible attitude problem. For some reason that fish didn’t want me near him! Every time I went to feed Rio or change his dirty water, he would come after me and try to pick a fight.

He would swim towards the front of the fish bowl, and aggressively flares his gills out really wide to make his presence known. It was like he was saying, “What’s up, you want some of me?” He was a little gang-banger in his fish bowl! If he were able to wear clothes he would have been wearing a hoody and jeans that hang down so low that his little fishy boxers would show. I’m serious. This fish had a bad attitude!

And yet, Rio was only 2 inches long and he was always trying to pick a fight with me. He wanted me to stay out of its little world. The fishbowl he lived in was his domain and even though I was the one that put the water, rocks, plants, and food in it, he wanted nothing to do with me. I tried to give him clean water to live in and clean the poop out of his life so that he was not contaminated by it, and yet, all that he wanted to do was pick a fight with me.

I was so bummed out that I would one day have to explain to our little Jeremiah that Rio’s little fishy heart was hard, unthankful, and he didn’t want to be friends with us.

When I think about Rio, I am reminded that there are people who are like him when it comes to their relationship with God. Even though God is the one that gives them the air they breathe, and ultimately is the One responsible for every good and pleasant thing in their life, they want nothing to do with Jesus because their hearts are so hard. And until a person gives their life to Jesus, their hearts will remain hardened to the things of God, and that of course is not God’s will or desire for anyone to stay like.

However, in the passage of Scripture from Mark 6, we see that God’s kids can also have hardened hearts also, as the Word of God points it out to us. Because it is vital for us to live our lives before the Lord with soft and teachable hearts, for the remainder of the article, I will be addressing three questions for us to consider.

1. What hardens a person’s heart?

We are going to see that there are two primary things that will harden a persons’ heart.
  • Choosing unbelief over faith (Hebrews 3:12)
According to Hebrews 3:12, the first area of a believer’s life that can cause us to live with a hardened heart is unbelief. Hebrews 3:12 tells us, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an EVIL HEART of UNBELIEF in departing from the living God”
  • Choosing sin over God (Hebrews 3:13)
According to Hebrews 3:13, the second area of a believers life that can cause us to have a hardened heart is living in unrepentant sin. Hebrews 3:13 tells us, “But exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be HARDENED through the deceitfulness of SIN.”

So here we see that the Bible says a persons heart is hardened to the things of God through the deceitfulness of sin. Not only that but we read that unbelief is the sign of an evil heart!

This doesn’t mean that as Christians we don’t struggle with doubts from time to time, nor that we have EVIL hearts when we do. However, when we begin embracing unbelief, and it begins to become our master, we are in great danger. That is why Hebrews 3:12 says, “Beware Brethren” that we do not develop an unbelieving heart.

2. What are the “effects” of a hardened heart?
  • It is impossible to PLEASE GOD without faith (Hebrews 11:6) 
  • It is impossible to SEE GOD WORK in your life without holiness (Hebrews 12:14)
3. Finally, what is the cure for a hardened heart?

 The cure for a hardened heart is:
  • Have God SEARCH your heart (Ps. 139:23-24)
King David prays in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

We want to first ask God to search our hearts, and then as the Holy Spirit reveals things that we need to confess and turn from, we have to in faith respond to it. And the good news for us as Christians is that since we have the ability to harden our hearts, God has also provided a course of action that we can take that will enable us to soften our hearts.
  • We must come to God with a Broken heart (Psalm 34:18)
In other words, we must allow God to break our heart before He can heal our heart. It isn’t until our heart is broken, that God can begin putting the pieces of our heart back together with a new nature. We must allow God to brake our heart before He can heal our heart. It isn’t until our heart is broken, that God can begin putting the pieces of our heart back together with a new nature.
  • Allow God’s Word to CLEANSE our hearts (Psalm 119:9-11)
The Bible tells us that the way we are to cleanse our hearts is by reading, memorizing, and meditating upon God’s Word (cf. Psalm 1:1-3).
  • Allow God’s Word to RENEW our hearts (Rom. 12:2)
The Bible tells us in Romans 12:2, the way to renew our heart and mind is through reading the Word of God and allowing it to renew us.

This is the cure for a hardened heart. This is how we break through the barriers of a hardened heart, and this is God’s will for each one of us who struggle in this area of life.

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