Hardened hearts

[Optimax]

The short answer is that sin hardens hearts.

There used to be more of a realization in Christianity that sin is destructive of your very soul and spirit. Some how this seems to have been pushed to the back and left out a great deal.

Sin hardens the heart and seers the conscience.

The counter to this is the conviction of the Holy Spirit. God may use events or words from someone as a tool.. but really it is the Spirit that overcomes things like this.

God can overcome any obstacle, including a hardened heart, no matter how hard it is. He can pretty much do whatever he wants to The issue there is that God generally allows people to pick their own path and doesn't force people to go one way or another (unless your a Calvinist ) Having a hardened heart is a particularly dangerous state because it means you are unlikely to listen when God does call. Luckily God is persistant and merciful.

I find in general that most people aren't very self aware.. and thus many don't really realize that they are getting hard hearted. At least not in the sense that they would ask themselves "why am I getting like this?" or even less "why am I choosing to become this way?"


For a Christian, what dangers there are depend on whether or not you believe people can turn away from Grace. I personally believe that people can.. and I think hardening of the heart is probably the biggest cause of people who turn their back on God and his grace. Its not that God can't get through.. its more that when a person gets to that point, they just stop listening.
Its all about the choices you make. Ultimately your choices determine what you become.
Some people call that "works" but its not. The only reason anyone even has a choice is because of God's grace through Christ. The choice you have is to surrender to God, or to follow yourself.

One of the problems with 'decision' theology as it is so called is that it reduces all this to one choice whether or not you say a prayer. The reality is its choices you make all the time. No one choice is going to condemn you, no single choice is going to harden your heart, but the choices you make establish a pattern and that pattern can mount up over time and you become something based on it. If you choose self enough, you become selfish, or a better way of saying it might be.. you become ruled by self instead of by Christ.

Said some good stuff there Temp.

 

[sealacamp]

Have been wondering a lot about the issue of hardened hearts recently, and I have a few questions about it. Am sorry

What causes it? And if we see it in others, what can we say, or do? For a Christian, what are the dangers of the heart being hard? Can a heart ever become so hardened God can't get through? If our own heart is being hardened gradually, are we generally aware of it?

Also, and perhaps most importantly, if an environment fosters hardened hearts, does that mean the environment isn't of God?

I know that's a lot of questions, but if you could share any thoughts you have, or Bible verses that speak to this specifically, I'd be really, really grateful Thank you berry much.

Life in general fosters the hardening of hearts. Dealing with all the responsibilities, the ups and downs of every day living distract us from the Lord. That is why He is always trying to reach us and let us see that there is more to life than just what is going on here in our daily chain of events. Some hear and others don't. Unless we just stop living I don't think there is really a way out of this environment. I do think we need to stop from time to time and just listen. Easier said than done but necessary.

Sealacamp

 

[ReformedChapin]

God hardens our hearts for his own purposes. Are we not responsible for it? No. We are! Scripture makes it more than clear we should pray for the Lords Mercy that he uses us for special use and not for orinary use!

“For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” 33 9:18 So then, 34 God 35 has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden. 36
9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?” 9:20 But who indeed are you – a mere human being 37 – to talk back to God? 38 Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 39 9:21 Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay 40 one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use? 41 9:22 But what if God, willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects 42 of wrath 43 prepared for destruction? 44 9:23 And what if he is willing to make known the wealth of his glory on the objects 45 of mercy that he has prepared beforehand for glory – 9:24 even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles
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