Stay Squishy

May 17

Heb. 3:1-19

Stay Squishy

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness…” (Ps. 95:7)

“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.” (v.12)

Hardness of heart is never good in the scriptures. It is such an odd saying when you think of it… what is a “hard heart” anyways? The bible says it is like a rock in our chest. Ezekiel tells us that God will take out of us our “heart of stone” and replace it with a “heart of flesh”. (cf. Ezek. 11:19, 36:26) It becomes clear that God wants his people to have a “soft heart”… a heart of flesh.

A “soft” heart is a heart that can be molded… it can be shaped. It moves… it “beats”… it is not heavy within our chest but rather “light”. This is the heart of God’s people: coachable, active, light and joyful. You wouldn’t necessarily know it from the way that some Christians act or the way that we describe our relationship with God at times. I have heard time and time again a well meaning Christian lash out against the supposed “evil” of our feelings. They would describe feelings as something to be avoided… something to cast aside… something inferior or less than in the walk of the Christian. It was almost as if they were advocating that a Christian have a stone heart… that they not feel at all but rather just “crunch the numbers” and process the “data” of the bible and move forward like a machine. I don’t think that is what God wants at all.

God warns us - “DO NOT harden your hearts”… keep ‘em soft. “TODAY, if you hear his voice” respond in a way that keeps your heart soft, active, and “beating”. There is no REST for a hard heart. (v.11) We cannot enter God’s rest with a stone heart, instead we end up “testing him” and in turn being led astray. God actually withholds rest from those who are hard hearted. (v.10,11) It is sin that deceives us and hardens our hearts:

“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (v.13)

Sin robs us of our coachable, active, joyful heart and gives us a stone heart instead. This sort of heart “leads us away from God”. It leads us AWAY from rest… not into it. The things that sin so often promises - fulfillment and happiness - are actually not Sin’s to give. Sin will simply leave us in the wilderness. For this reason, we “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’’.

Listen for the voice of the Lord today and do not harden your heart. I want to encourage you - “exhort” you - that there is still time. It is still “today”, which means today could be they day that your stone heart leaves and your flesh heart comes. Heed the voice of the Lord. For those whose hearts once beat strong but have grown tired… hardened by life … may your hearts beat again today! May the Lord fill them with joy! If you belong to the Lord - listen to his voice and walk away from whatever sin is hardening your heart and robbing you of rest. Today is the day. As you read the word of God, listen to the Spirit of God as he speaks to you. “If you hear his voice, do not harden your heart…Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.” (v.7,12) There is REST to be had for the soft-hearted people of God. May you FEEL it today in your softened, God-given, heart of flesh! You do not have to die in the wilderness as once was the case, Christ has called you to something greater than Moses! Love you guys. - JDP