Soft or Stony Hearts

The people of Israel had been conquered and scattered among the nations. God had removed his Spirit from the temple, and they felt abandoned. They had been warned of what would happen if they did not repent, turn away from idol worship and turn to God alone. They did not turn to God, and so he had exiled them. This was a punishment that was for their own good, to bring them back into relationship with God. He didn’t intend to leave them scattered and in slavery. He sent Ezekiel to encourage them, and to prepare them for their restoration.

I shall gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries among which you have been scattered, and I shall give you the land of Israel. When they come there, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it. And I shall give them one heart, and shall put a new spirit within them. And I shall take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances, and do them. Then they will be my people, and I shall be their God. Ezekiel 11:17-20

God would restore them. He would not abandon them to their sin but would bring them home. And then he would do the most amazing thing! He would remove their hard heart, their heart of stone, and give them instead a soft heart, a tender heart of flesh. Then they would be his people, and he would be their God.

This same thing happens to us. We sin. We refuse to turn away from the idolatry in our lives, and instead continue to worship power or money or ourselves. God withdraws his blessing. But he does not abandon us. He draws us unto himself. When we respond with repentance, he gives us one heart and one Spirit, so that we are part of one body to worship him. He removes our old, hard heart and replaces it with a heart of flesh, a soft and responsive heart.

Too many times we hang on to our old stony heart. We refuse to see our own sin, rationalizing it away. We look at others without any compassion, seeing only their faults and mistakes. We miss the look of hurt on our spouses face when we make flip and harsh comments, disguising it as humor. We overlook the tender feelings of a little boy or girl who just wants to feel significant in your eyes. We tear each other down instead of building each other up. We push ahead without ever seeing the people God has put around us, those who need our encouragement. We see the power of a leader instead of the breaking heart or the wealth of a coworker instead of the loneliness that she lives in. We choose a heart of stone.

God has given us a heart of flesh, a soft, responsive heart that reaches out to individuals regardless of their immigration status, their sexuality, their skin color or their gender. We have hearts capable of empathy regardless of social status, wealth, power or lack of it. We have soft hearts capable of loving like God does, of being his representative and of reconciliation.

Being soft requires that we are open to being hurt. Being soft sets aside old wounds and scars and loves anyway. A heart of stone can hide behind political affiliations, social mores and emotional walls; a heart of flesh cannot.

Jesus loved regardless of the cost. He who was God chose a heart of flesh, and loved us recklessly. He knew we would fail him, betray him, reject him. His people had done so consistently from the garden forward. And still he chose to love us and to reach to us, providing a way for us to be with him in relationship.

How can we do less? Only by holding on to our heart of stone.

Who has God put in your life to love today? Who are you hardening your heart against? What little person or poor person or illegal person or smelly person is God calling you to soften your heart toward?

Not too long ago God called me to love a group of ladies. I didn’t want to. Love requires vulnerability. I never agreed to love them; I just agreed to join them, as God was being pretty persistent about it. People are messy. We all carry around our own baggage that we’d just as soon leave somewhere else. We certainly don’t want to open it up and share it with others. I joined the group, God softened my heart, and I am so surprised by how much I love them. If I had chosen to keep my stony heart I would have missed out on so much blessing and kindness and friendship. When we choose to remain hard, we forget that sometimes the mess we’re avoiding is our own.

Soften your heart. Allow God to love through you. Allow God to love you through others.