Tag: hardened heart

Featured

October 11 2023 – Hebrews 3 – The Danger of a Hardened Heart

Reading through the Bible, we see many warnings about wandering from the faith. They are in both the Old and New Testaments. In Hebrews 3, we see a warning about wandering from the faith from the Old Testament example of the Israelites that were led through the wilderness for forty years.

Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, And saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they did not know My ways’; As I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ” Hebrews3:7–11NASB1995

I have said on many occasions that allowing sin to remain in our lives is dangerous. The Holy Spirit continually shows us the sin in our lives that is separating us from God. We either deal with the sin and continue in right relation with God or we choose to keep the sin and ignore the Holy Spirit. That is how we harden our hearts against God.

It is a slippery slope when we choose not to deal with sin because it allows other sins to take root in our lives. Once this begins to happen, we accelerate the hardening of our heart against God. It becomes more and more difficult to hear God speaking to us. This puts us in a dangerous condition where we can actually deny our faith in God.

The author of Hebrews gives us clear warning and we would do well to, not only listen but examine our lives to see if we are cherishing sin over God.

“Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end…” Hebrews3:12–14NASB1995

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for the incredible sacrifice you made to make me right with God! Help me to listen to your Spirit and continually confess and turn from sins that harden my heart against you. Amen.

January 17 2023 – 2 Timothy 2 – Enduring With Christ

In college, a Greek professor made a shocking statement that sent me to my Bible to prove him wrong. I had my faith challenged. It is a good thing to have our faith challenged, if we dig into God’s word and examine what we believe. As a result, we may change what we believe to more accurately reflect what the Bible teaches, or we may confirm what we already believed. Either way, the process is good for us.

My faith challenge began with the belief in a pre-tribulation rapture. I have since come to embrace the historical view of the church on the second coming. I am looking for Christ to literally come in the clouds. You can read more about that in my devotion Rapture or Day of the Lord.

In studying about the rapture, I was also challenged in what I believed about once saved always saved (OSAS). I kept running into scriptures that caused me to question it. If we were always saved once we embraced the grace offered to us by God in Christ, why did Jesus warn us not to deny him before men. In his predictions about the Day of the Lord, Jesus said, “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.” Matthew10:32–33NIV

In 2 Timothy 2, the Apostle Paul gives Timothy a similar warning that must have been in common use in the church. He says, “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” 2 Timothy2:11-13NIV There are other places in the New Testament that call OSAS into question as well.

Someone is already thinking of “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” John10:28NIV Others may be remembering, “…When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians1:13–14NIV  I agree with them and those verses. As far as it depends on God, we are secure. However, the verses in 2 Timothy 2 that Paul said was a trustworthy saying, indicate we have a choice in the matter even after we have received the grace of God offered in Jesus Christ.

“If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” We embrace the grace of God by faith in Jesus Christ. We identify ourselves with the atoning work of Christ on the cross and in the resurrection so we will live with him. If we endure, we will reign with him. However, if we decide to disown Christ, he will disown us. That is a pretty serious warning.

I want to point out that it isn’t backsliding. I believe the last part of that saying addresses the backsliders. “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” The Holy Spirit is living in us when we come to faith. We may not listen to him, we may not live up to who we are called to be but God is faithful. Because his Holy Spirit lives in us, he will not deny himself.

The disowning that I believe is so dangerous is a disowning Christ, perhaps in some sort of ritual, before other people. Most of us shudder to even think of it. However, there are some who become hardened by sin, who could actually get to that point and trade the presence of God and the eternal for something temporary in this life. That is why unrepentant sin is dangerous. The longer we refuse to repent, the harder our hearts become against God. We could get to the point where we don’t hear the Holy Spirit warning us of the peril to our own souls and disown Christ.

Hopefully, we never get to that point. God is working through his abiding Holy Spirit to keep us close. We need to listen and obey and we will continue to grow in the love of God!

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, thank you for paying the price for my sins and bringing me into your love. Help me to never cherish sin so that I keep my heart open to you. Amen.