Don’t Let Hardness Destroy You!

It’s easy to become hard-hearted in our increasingly wicked society. People will hurt you by their actions and their words. They will intimidate you, belittle you and even strike out against you. Your job may be chaotic and overly stressful—no one even notices the good things you’re doing. You may not feel your own worth any longer because of the way others have treated you.

A hard heart is a destructive force. It creates a callousness towards others that develops into a strong sense of negativity. Negativity, in turn, develops into a change in one’s personality. Even though all these things are terrible, the most disastrous outcome is the destruction of one’s personal relationship and interaction with God.

A hard heart creates a barrier whereby the love of God cannot pass over. It’s not that God cannot get His love to you; it’s that the hardness stands as a barrier in your life preventing His love and goodness from passing over to you. A hard heart creates stubbornness and hardness within the individual. A hard heart becomes like a stone, no longer pliable, tender and soft. A hard heart eventually becomes unresponsive to God’s Spirit. Soon, the individual is lost in a sea of despair.

Maybe that’s you today? A terrible home condition when you were young? Bad situations growing up? Abuse that you could not break away from? These and so many other situations eventually create a hard heart if they are allowed to continue to fester inside you.

It’s time to break free. It’s time to shed the hardness and allow God’s Spirit to take away the root of the hardness and all the damage it has done to you. Ezekiel 36:26 says: “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart” (NLT). God wants to deliver you today!

Maybe you have tried to change; tried to find a means of escape from the hurt you have suffered through in the past but it just keeps coming back? Turn it over to God. Release it to Him today! Do not allow the hardness to destroy your life any longer. Be set free by the Spirit of God and allow Him to bring about newness to your life by bringing tenderness back into your heart.

Scripture Reading: “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you” (Psalm 51:10-12 NLT).

Prayer: Father in heaven, help me to be ever mindful of the destructive nature of a hard heart. Help me to recognize situations in my own life that can easily destroy me if I allow them to fester and grow rather than releasing them by Your power and strength. Help me to maintain a pure heart by being sensitive to Your Spirit’s direction in all things. Lord, if there is any bitterness in my heart now, please reveal it to me and help me to let it all go for Your glory! I give You all praise and glory today. I love you, Lord…in Jesus’ name…AMEN!