Avoiding a Hard Heart

"But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go." -Exodus 10:20

When our mind reflects on Pharaoh from the book of Exodus, I pretty sure that we don't think of him as a spiritual giant or a hero to model our own lives after. After all, it was Pharaoh who wouldn't let the people go and made the Egyptians suffer through the plagues. Now, before we give Pharaoh too much of a hard time, let us remember that God had a hand in hardening the heart of Pharaoh. Of the ten times that it is said Pharaoh's heart was hardened, four of those were because God hardened his heart. However, it is notable that Pharaoh had already hardened his own heart five times before God hardened it the first time. Pharaoh fought God, so God turned Pharaoh into a useful tool to show the children of Israel His power and might.

A hard heart is developed by being in opposition to the will or ways of God. We can develop a hard heart when we fight God on what He wants for our lives. When I started playing piano at four, my hands were way to small to span several keys. Over the years, my hands grew, but they were still a little too small to reach what I needed to. I still tried anyway and ended up developing callouses on two fingers of my left hand. Once the callouses developed, I didn't have any more feeling in that part of my fingers. My skin had become hard. (I still am plagued with small hands for a man!) When we fight what God wants, we are slowly, but surely, doing the same thing to our heart. As it progresses, we will eventually quit feeling the gentle nudges of the Holy Spirit and it will take more and more to get our attention. What a terrible fate to come to the point of having a hard heart! But, if you are already experiencing symptoms of a hardened heart, there's a remedy that is sure! To help soften callouses on the hands to make them easer to scrape and remove, we let them soak in water for a long period of time. From a spiritual perspective, still water is a type of the Word of God. Soak your hardened heart in the Word of God, and I promise, it'll soften. Let make sure our hearts stay soft and conformable to the will of God!