Hardened is a word that has many meanings depending on its use. If you’re involved in the construction or engineering field, hardened can refer to metals that have been made harder.
In the medical field, hardened can mean someone who, through experience, is no longer sensitive to the unpleasantness of healthcare. In each of those, being hardened is a good thing. However, there are many aspects of our life where being hardened isn’t a good thing.
Being hardened towards the Lord
I share today’s post with you out of the experiences in my own life. Since 2018, I have taken time away from regular posting on this blog – not because I turned against the Lord. But because I had to deal with an issue in my own life. Being hardened towards the Lord doesn’t mean being angry at Him and avoiding him altogether. It also means holding something back, some area of your life, and marking it as off-limits to the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes we harden our hearts towards the Lord when we don’t understand things. It is easier to get angry, to become insensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit when things happen we do not understand. And that’s one way we can become resistant to the leadership of the Lord. It’s not that we don’t love the Lord, but somehow we’ve become more focused on our problems rather than trusting Him.
The contribution of our own sin
I realize that today’s post focuses on the life of the believer. Yes, a believer can develop a hardened heart because of sin. Paul writes, Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us… (Romans 12:1). Paul understood human behavior well. Every one of us has some sin(s) we are easily tempted by. And we despise the efforts made by the Holy Spirit when we are reminded it’s still sin.
Our human nature does not like to be reminded of our shortcomings and failures, and we get defensive about them. And if we are not careful, we can grow bitter over them. I’ve used and heard others use excuses like “nobody’s perfect,” “God understands I’m only human,” and “I’ll just repent later.” These are just a cover-up of the bitterness growing within. What we are implying is, “I’ll do what I want; therefore, God’s being unrealistic by calling this sin!”
Our experiences can cause us to become hardened, too
While our own sins can certainly cause us to become hardened, so can our experiences. When others hear my testimony I am often asked, “how can you continue to do what you do after all you’ve been through?” The answer is simply JESUS. I’ve not always been this way. I had to come to terms with abandonment, divorce, various forms of abuse, and personal failures caused me to become more insensitive to the Lord than I should have been. Just as we all have sins in our lives we hide deep inside from others, we all have pains we also bury from others. But just because they are hidden does not mean we are healing. It means the opposite.
Emotional pain causes us to see things from the perspective of our hurt. When we keep our pain buried, it is natural for us to become more defensive and less open to others. We become guarded with everything we do. Jesus says to us, freely ye have received, freely give (Matthew 10:8b) but when we refuse to deal with our own hurt, this is nearly impossible. We become closed off to the Lord. Our insensitivity towards others increases as our focus shifts to our own pain.
