HARDENED HEARTS
I saw it happen. Just as God said Pharaoh's heart would harden, so did hers. And it's shocking and eye-opening when it happens before your eyes.
Only a few months ago, she lost a dear loved one. It was all she could talk about, and the loss left her empty and sad. From what she said, her sadness surprised even herself. It was all she wanted to talk about that day, so we did. Her heart seemed to be tender and lonely.
Before we parted that day, the Holy Spirit urged me to pray that God's comfort would be hers. When we finished, she remarked that no one had ever done that for her before. She seemed appreciative and accepting.
We don't see each other often. When I met with her a few months later, a subtle change had come over her. Her proclivity to talk about nature, the birds and her garden was submerged. The happy ring in her voice was diminished. An attempt on my part to even discuss anything spiritual was bypassed by her as if she hadn't noticed--she wasn't interested anymore.
All she wanted to talk about was her work, her travels and herself. It was as if she had built a wall around the hurt she experienced a few months prior and no longer would let it intrude in her life. She was moving on without it. A hardness had crept in to fill the vacancy left by tenderness. The change was subtle, but was there, nonetheless. And it frightened me.
God had given her an opportunity to let Him become real to her in her time of sorrow and need. Instead, she had built that wall against pain--and God. Remembering Pharaoh, it was easy for me to compare her loss with Pharaoh's and see how pain can either bring a person closer to God and His way or else drive a person far from Him. And in doing so, that individual closes the door to the hope of their salvation from sin and broadens one leading to an eternity spent in hell, void of God forever.
Avoiding immediate pain at the expense of spending eternity in the worst pain imaginable and beyond is an expensive trade-off. Yet, many, many people today make such a deal with the devil. Just thinking about what faces them hurts more than words will express.
Jesus said that only a few will find the way to eternal life. It is our job to obey the Holy Spirit as we rub shoulders with folks in their everyday lives, to leave a witness of God and His salvation as we are enabled, but to leave the results with Him.
It is for such people that we need a world-wide revival that shakes sinners from their lethargy and wakens them to their need for a Savior from sin. Unless that happens, hell will continue to suck sinners into her bowels without measure.
Pray for revival and keep lifting up Jesus before men...for those who will listen. That is Jesus' great commission for us who are partakers of His mercy and grace. We MUST reach the few who will find Him!