Mark 8:14-21Amplified Bible

¹⁴ Now the disciples had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. ¹⁵ Jesus repeatedly ordered them, saying, “Watch out! Beware of the ^[a]leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” ¹⁶ They began discussing this with one another, saying, “It is because we have no bread [that He said this].” ¹⁷  Jesus, aware of this [discussion], said to them, “Why are you discussing [the fact]  that you have no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? ¹⁸ Though you have eyes, do you not see? And though you have ears, do you not hear and listen [to what I have said]? And do you not remember, ¹⁹ when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?” They answered, “Twelve.” ²⁰ “And [when I broke] the seven  [loaves] for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?” And they answered, “Seven.” ²¹ And He was saying to them, “Do you still not understand?”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

Hardened Hearts and Hardened Bread

Psalm 95:8-9 Amplified Bible

⁸ 
Do not harden your hearts and become spiritually dull as at Meribah [the place of strife],
And as at Massah [the place of testing] in the wilderness,
⁹ 
“When your fathers tested Me,
They tried Me, even though they had seen My work [of miracles].

A hard hardened heart is as useless as a hard hardened loaf of bread.

At Meribah the Israelites complained to Moses because they had no water (Exodus 17:1-7). They were so convinced that God couldn’t provide for them that they simply lost their faith in God.

When someone’s heart becomes hardened, that person is so stubbornly set in their ways that they cannot turn to God. Hard hearts don’t turn that way overnight; it is the result of a long series of choices to disregard God’s will.

Because that generation of Israelites persisted in stubborn disobedience, God chose not to let them enter his “rest,” the land he had promised their ancestors.

What would keep people from the ultimate blessing of entering God’s rest?

Unthankful hearts, to begin with.

Not listening to what God calls them to do. Being stubborn about doing things their way and not God’s way. Doubting that God is working in love in their lives.

When the Promises Are Mixed with Faith

4 ^1-3 For as long, then, as that promise of resting in him pulls us on to God’s goal for us, we need to be careful that we’re not disqualified. We received the same promises as those people in the wilderness, but the promises didn’t do them a bit of good because they didn’t receive the promises with faith. If we believe, though, we’ll experience that state of resting. But not if we don’t have faith. Remember that God said,

Exasperated, I vowed,
    “They’ll never get where they’re going,
    never be able to sit down and rest.”

^3-7 God made that vow, even though he’d finished his part before the foundation of the world. Somewhere it’s written, “God rested the seventh day, having completed his work,” but in this other text he says, “They’ll never be able to sit down and rest.” So this promise has not yet been fulfilled. Those earlier ones never did get to the place of rest because they were disobedient. God keeps renewing the promise and setting the date as today, just as he did in David’s psalm, centuries later than the original invitation:

Today, please listen,
    don’t turn a deaf ear . . .

^8-11 And so this is still a live promise. It wasn’t canceled at the time of Joshua; otherwise, God wouldn’t keep renewing the appointment for “today.” The promise of “arrival” and “rest” is still there for God’s people. God himself is at rest. And at the end of the journey we’ll surely rest with God. So let’s keep at it and eventually arrive at the place of rest, not drop out through some sort of disobedience.

Hebrews 4:1-11, we are encouraged to enter the eternal rest that Jesus has won for us through his death and resurrection by being faithful followers of Christ.

The good news of salvation in Jesus is that there are no hearts so hard that the Holy Spirit cannot soften them. Jesus had encountered many hard hearts in his teaching and preaching ministry, yet he lived and died to offer salvation to all.

Reignite Your Passion for the Lord …

Have you ever found yourself abnormally impatient, or more commonly short-tempered, or acting more arrogantly than normal and you’re unsure why?

None of us are perfect, and we all have our less-than-proud moments in life that keep us close to the cross, but if you’ve noticed these tendencies increase for a prolonged period of time, chances are you’re suffering from a hardening heart.

A hardened heart is unmoved by things others would be compassionate about. It is a heart that is rebelling against God.

In Mark 8:17-18 Jesus accused his disciples of having hardened hearts when they did not believe or understand how Jesus could use a small batch of bread to feed a massive crowd, saying, “Have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? And having ears, hear ye not? And do ye not remember?”

A hard heart is characterized by an inability to perceive spiritually.

When people are hardhearted toward God, they are spiritually blind and deaf—they can’t see spiritual truth or hear the Lord speak to them.

So how can we ensure our hearts remain “soft” and open to the things of God, and how can we with Holy Spirit intercession, regain closeness with Him after realizing our hearts have indeed become hardened? 

1. Repent and Believe the Good News (Psalm 51)

The first step might seem obvious, but it’s important: we need to repent!

God appears to take hardened hearts very seriously throughout scripture, with the phrase “hardened or hardness of heart” mentioned more than 20 times in the Old and New Testaments.

This can be seen in Matthew 13:15, when Jesus says, “For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes— so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.”

We only harm ourselves when we harden our hearts. And since we’re unable to hear fully from God or even receive healing when our hearts are hardened, we need to ask for forgiveness for turning away from Him and re-surrender our whole hearts before even beginning to move back towards the right direction.

2. Ask the Holy Spirit to Reveal the Source of Your Hardness 

Psalm 51:10-13 New American Standard Bible 1995

¹⁰ Create ^[a]in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew ^[b]a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit.
¹³ Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners will ^[c]be converted to You.

Have there been wrongful patterns of thinking, lies you’ve believed about yourself, others, or God, or alignment with activities or beliefs that misaligned with Him? Then, it’s time to infuse your mind and heart with revelatory truth obtained through studying the Word and time well spent praying with Jesus.

It’s not enough to decide not to be “hard” anymore. We need to replace an inaction with an action. Kind of like replacing good healthy nutritious food away from junk food when starting a help regime.

Hardened hearts are often a sad consequence of bitterness and unforgiveness towards others or ourselves. Think of the last bitter or angry person you’ve interacted with. Were they kind and warm, or were they cold and dismissive?

We can’t remain close to God and exhibit godly characteristics when carrying unforgiveness in our hearts. So often, we’re unforgiving towards ourselves or another without fully realizing it.

After a time, the resentfulness just builds and takes over, affecting our ability to be open-hearted and loving because we’re so tired by our pain.

When dealing with a hardened heart in the past, I found that it helps to invoke a spirit of thankfulness. When focusing your thoughts and turning your affection to the Lord, meditating on all that he’s done for us and all He continues to be for us -our sources of strength, comfort, and guidance- it’s much easier to reignite the passion for Jesus that softened our hearts in the first place.

If you’ve been feeling a bit hardened or ambivalent towards the Lord recently, consider setting aside times of worship and meditating on the love of God and His faithfulness throughout your life.

It’s almost impossible to remain ambivalent or distant towards the Lord, when sincerely worshipping Him for how good He is!

3. Heart and Soul, Hands, Feet: Love and Serve Others

Psalm 100 New American Standard Bible 1995

All Men Exhorted to Praise God.

A Psalm for ^[a]Thanksgiving.

100 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
² Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.
³ Know that the Lord ^[b]Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and ^[c]not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

⁴ Enter His gates with ^[d]thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
⁵ For the Lord is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.

Another way to reignite a hardened heart is to intentionally love and serve others. I’ve found a direct correlation between seasons of hard-heartedness and my self-absorption. When living for ourselves, with lots of focus on what makes us happy, the concerns of the flesh, we tend to care and serve others less.

When we do not love others, we ignore so many direct commands in the Bible, like 1 John 4:7, that keep us close to God. We are, of course, utterly loved by God regardless of any action we fulfill or any strings attached.

But when we’re in close communion with Him, that love is meant to outpour into the lives of people around us. How we love and care for others serves as a litmus test for the condition of our hearts. (John 13:34-35) A hard heart doesn’t have the capacity to help and serve others. It’s way way too wrapped up in self.

John 13:34-35 Amplified Bible

³⁴ I am giving you a new commandment, that you ^[a]love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too are to love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love and unselfish concern for one another.”

If you feel an imbalance between the amount of time and energy you spend either in prayer or physically helping or serving people around you, consider whether this is a result of a hardened heart, and think about ways to begin sowing into the lives of others.

This is a very effective way of reigniting your relationship with the Lord because our LOVE without Him, is nothing but a “clanging symbol,” 1 Corinthians 13:1.

Serving and loving others forces us to connect with God because we really can’t affectively love others without being in relationship with Him.

God cares about the condition of our hearts above all else because we can’t be close to Him without an open and vulnerable heart. If you feel you’ve been hardened for a bit, or perhaps even years, it’s nothing to feel guilty about.

God’s not mad at you.

But He does want access to our whole heart because he knows the only true way to peace and joy is by being in constant, complete intimacy with Him.

Let today be the beginning of your heart-softening process, feel the relief and wholeness that comes when forgiving, letting our guard down, love fully again.

4. Declare His Praises Over and Over Again

Psalm 51:14-17Amplified Bible

¹⁴ 
Rescue me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;
Then my tongue will sing joyfully of Your righteousness and Your justice.
¹⁵ 
O Lord, open my lips,
That my mouth may declare Your praise.
¹⁶ 
For You do not delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You are not pleased with burnt offering.
¹⁷ 
My [only] sacrifice [acceptable] to God is a broken spirit;
A broken and contrite heart [broken with sorrow for sin, thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise.

The church is called to be a witness, and a witness is one who declares and demonstrates.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9

Notice the structure, You are … that you may. 

This is our primary task as Christians.

We are indwelt by Jesus Christ so that we may demonstrate the life and character of the One who lives within.

The responsibility to fulfill this calling of the church belongs to every true Christian. All are called, all are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, all are expected to fulfill their calling in the midst of the hardened chaotic world. The expression of the church’s witness may sometimes be corporate, but the true responsibility to witness is always the individuals. It is your individual responsibility and mine.

But here a problem re-emerges: the problem of possible counterfeit Christians.

It is easy for the church (or the individual Christian) to talk about displaying the character of Christ and to make grandiose claims about doing so.

However, the image Christians project is not always the true, biblical image of Jesus Christ. Humility, patience, love, unity, and peace — these are the truest marks of Jesus.

Christians are to witness, but not arrogantly or rudely, not with an attitude of holier-than-thou smugness, not in sanctimonious presumption, and certainly not against a background of ugly church fights, Christian against Christian.

The church is not to talk about itself.

The church is to fearlessly sing about the Lord their God and Savior Jesus!

Psalm 27:1-6 Amplified Bible

A Psalm of Fearless Trust in God.

A Psalm of David.

27 The Lord is my light and my salvation—
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the refuge and fortress of my life—
Whom shall I dread?
² 
When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh,
My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.
³ 
Though an army encamp against me,
My heart will not fear;
Though war arise against me,
Even in this I am confident.

⁴ 
One thing I have asked of the Lord, and that I will seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life,
To gaze upon the beauty [the delightful loveliness and majestic grandeur] of the Lord
And to meditate in His temple.
⁵ 
For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter;
In the secret place of His tent He will hide me;
He will lift me up on a rock.
⁶ 
And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me,
In His tent I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

It is to be lowly in mind, not boasting of its power or seeking to advance its prestige. The church cannot save the world — but the Lord of the church can.

It is not the church for which Christians are to labor and spend their lives, but for the Lord of the church. The church cannot exalt its Lord while it seeks to exalt itself. The true church does not seek to gain power in the eyes of the world.

It already has all the power it needs from the Lord who indwells it.

Further, the church is to be patient and forbearing, knowing that the seeds of truth take time to sprout, time to grow, and time to come to full harvest.

The church is not to demand that society make sudden changes in long established social patterns. Rather, the church is to exemplify positive social change by shunning evil and practicing righteousness, thus planting seeds of truth which will take root in society and ultimately produce the fruit of change.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 150The Message

150 ^1-6 Hallelujah!
Praise God in his holy house of worship,
    praise him under the open skies;
Praise him for his acts of power,
    praise him for his magnificent greatness;
Praise with a blast on the trumpet,
    praise by strumming soft strings;
Praise him with castanets and dance,
    praise him with banjo and flute;
Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum,
    praise him with fiddles and mandolin.
Let every living, breathing creature praise God!
    Hallelujah!

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

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