“So as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness,” Hebrews 3:7-8
The author is quoting from Psalms when he makes this statement. The Israelites had heard what God wanted and yet rebelled against Him. They had hardened their hearts to doing what God wanted done. In the end all of them died in the wilderness, never seeing the promised land.
Hardening of some things can be good. When a knife is being made, the metal is heated up and pounded, then quickly cooled down. This is done over and over again to harden it.
When someone is learning a martial art and wants to break a brick with their hand, they must harden the hand first. They must practice against lighter items to build up the toughness to break a brick.
However, the hardening of the heart is a bad thing. It happens when you hear something from God and don’t do it. This can be heard as you read the Bible alone, or hearing a sermon, or a friend tells you something, or you are listening to the radio, or just hearing it in your spirit.
Often many believers will hear God say something, but ignore it. This causes the heart to hardened. It gets hardened against hearing what God has to say. When you cannot hear what God has to say to you, then you will not be able to do what He wants you to do. At that point you will be sinning against God.
When you harden your heart, you block God from bringing you into the promised land He has for you. You do not know the things God is ready to do for you, unless you listen and follow Him. The Israelites could not see the promised land until they got there. They had to trust God to bring them there.
Are you trusting God to bring you to the promised land He has for you?
Are you listening to what God is saying?
Now are you doing what God is telling you to do?
Today, do not harden your heart, keep it soft and alive in Jesus.
I pray today that you will hear what God is telling you; that you will do what God is telling you to do; that you will not harden your heart; that you will allow God to keep your heart soft and alive; and that you will draw closer to Jesus.
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