Calloused Hearts

I’ve been thinking about calloused hearts lately...  I also remembered that I posted a status on Facebook about it a long time ago, it said:  Don't ignore the pull on your heart anymore... it may not be there forever. The continuous refusal to respond to the guidance of the Spirit of God may eventually lead to a state of moral insensitivity. Grieving (Eph. 4:30), resisting (Acts 7:51), and quenching (1 Thess. 5:19) the Holy Spirit may lead one's heart to become so hardened and calloused that he will not even hear the truth.

Then today I read a devotional where it pointed out Matthew 13:1-15.  Specifically 13:15, which states:  

Jesus said, "This people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them."

The devotional also had an example:

"I've started playing a guitar again after a lapse of more than 35 years. I haven't played since I was a teenager, and I had forgotten the first major obstacle to playing: tender fingers. Guitar players must build up a layer of callouses on the fingertips so that pressing the strings doesn't hurt. I finally have a sufficient layer of callouses on my fingertips. But when I pick up a coin, stroke my daughter's hair, or touch my own face, through the callouses I feel only the pressure of an object, not the object itself. Now I can better understand the barrier between the Lord and me: My heart has become calloused. The Holy Spirit speaks to us within our heart. In right relationship with God, we open our calloused hearts to the presence of the Holy Spirit. If we do, we will not be among those who hear and do not understand, who see but are blind, who touch but do not feel." -Stanley Hurst (Alabama, USA)

Living in right relationship with God keeps the heart soft.

It made me think of how so many of us take for granted how much God is pulling on our hearts to turn to Him, yet we refuse to respond and in turn we let our hearts become more calloused each day.  Each time we reject God, we are hardening our hearts so badly that one day we won't even be able to recognize what truth is.  Don't let your heart become like this... recognize that God loves you and He is always trying to get your attention so that you will turn to Him and let Him change you from the inside out!

This is my prayer: that all of our hearts would be softened toward God and toward each other and to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

(Originally posted on my Facebook Notes in 2010)