Hardness of heart in the Bible can be caused by sin, rejecting God, disappointment and unforgiveness to name a few. Proverbs 28:14 warns that, “He who hardens his heart will fall into calamity” (NKJV). This was certainly the case for the children of Israel who hardened their hearts against God many times throughout the whole of the Old Testament. The writer of Hebrews refers to this in Heb 3:15 when he quotes Psalm 95:8, “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion” (NKJV). We are told that the disciples suffered from “hardness of heart” (Mark 6:52). The Amplified Bible explains that term saying that “their hearts had grown calloused (had become dull and had lost the power of understanding)”. Jesus rebuked His disciples at least twice for hardness of heart. Once when they couldn’t seem to understand that He could provide for their needs (Mark 8:17-21) and another time because they did not believe those who told them that Jesus had risen from the dead (Mark 16:14). In Matthew 19:8 Jesus was talking to His disciples about marriage and divorce and He said the reason Moses allowed divorce was because of, “hardness of hearts”. If you want your marriage to survive, we learn here that we need to have “tender hearts” towards our spouse. Let’s keep our hearts soft (humble, teachable, compassionate) today, not only towards God but towards our spouses, family members and everyone we come into contact with.

The apostle Paul said that: “The just shall live by faith” (Gal 3:11b; NKJV) and that he lived his life by faith in Jesus (Gal 2:20b). The writer of Hebrews made our need of faith quite clear when he said, “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6; NKJV). Faith is having absolute trust and confidence in God (2 Tim 3:15; AMP). In Hebrews we read that, Faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:2; ESV). Jesus taught us that when we pray, when we speak our requests, we must believe that we receive what we ask for, even though we may not see the tangible manifestation immediately (Mark 11:22-24). This manifestation may take time to occur and we will need to mix patience with our faith (Heb 6:12). I like to think of faith as knowing that we know, that we know that God’s promises to us are always yes and amen (2 Cor 1:20) and will come to pass. In the epistle of James, we are told that there is no room for doubting, we must be consistent in faith, the “double minded man” will not “receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6-8; NKJV). God has given us all a “measure of faith” (Rom 12:3b; NKJV). We can grow and develop that faith by studying God’s word in our Bibles (Rom 10:17) and “praying in the Holy Spirit” (Jude 1:20; NKJV); that is praying as directed by the Holy Spirit and in tongues. Let’s all strive to be powerful faith-filled Christians.

“So encourage each other and build each other up just as you are already doing” (1 Thess 5:11; NLT). We also see the words, “encourage one another” in Heb 10:25. Our speech should also encourage others (Eph 4:29) In that verse the words build up and edify are used instead of encourage in some translations. 1 Thess 5:14 tells us to encourage the disheartened and Gal 6:2 tells us to carry each other’s burdens. Jesus was an encourager as we see in the gospels, He frequently told the people He was relating to not to fear but to, “cheer up.” For example, when the disciples were caught in a storm Jesus told them to, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid” (Matt 14:27; NKJV). Then in John 16:33 He says, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (NKJV). It doesn’t get more encouraging than that! The early church also made encouragement a part of their ministry. We read in Acts 13:15 that Paul and Barnabas were asked if they had any word of encouragement for the church in Antioch and they did! (Acts 16:40; See also Acts 18:27, 20:1-2, 27:36). So, I encourage you today to look for ways you can encourage someone, whether it be a note, a phone call, text or kind word; that way you will be a doer of the word and pleasing to God.

I was in a public place the other day and saw a sign that said, “Words Matter.” This was obviously referring to verbal abuse in the workplace but as Christians this is very applicable to us too. The Bible has much to say about our words. Psalm 19:1 says,” Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord” (NKJV). How can we make sure that our words are acceptable to God? Firstly, we need to think before we speak (Ps 141:3, Prov 21:23, 17:27, 28, James 1:19). If we do this, we are less likely to speak angry words, “A soft answer turns away wrath” (Prov 15:1,2). Our words are powerful, with them we can speak life or death over a person’s life (Prov 18:21). Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:25 not to lie but to speak the truth. In verse 29 of the same chapter, he tells us that our words should encourage others. Then in Colossians 4:6 we learn that our speech should be “gracious” (pleasant or kind) (see also Prov 16:24). These are all things that are pleasing to God. The letter of James devotes a whole chapter to the tongue and James 1:26 says that our Christianity is worthless if we don’t control our tongues. Matthew, in his gospel, tells us that we will have to account for every care less words we speak on judgment day. In addition to watching what we say and how we speak, our words can also speak our faith (Mark 11:23) but that’s a topic for another day!