Reveal | Day 32- March 30 | Psalm 95

“Don’t harden your hearts.” As I read this Psalm, these words caught my eye. I reflected on this idea of having a “hard heart” and times in my past when I had a “hard heart.” I have always been stubborn, ever since I was little. I don’t like to admit when I’m wrong and very rarely do. This is something I still have to work on to this day.

I recall many fights throughout my younger years that always ended in grudges. Arguments with my sister, friends - you name it, I would hold a grudge. I remember going days giving my friends the cold shoulder, sitting at a different lunch table, or sitting somewhere else in class, all to prove a point. Straining my relationship with someone because of my hard heart. And it wasn’t until I softened my heart that I could heal my relationship with that person.

Our relationship with God is the same. Our hard hearts can separate us from God. We come up with these ideas in our minds that we don’t need God and can do it ourselves. We go through our week checking off simple boxes that make us “Christian,” ignoring the relationship God is offering us. We come on Sunday morning with our hardened hearts and are met with God’s tender compassion.

It is easy to have this idea that we must fix ourselves before coming to God, that God resents us because of our sins and failures. So we harden our hearts and block out what God is saying to us. We do okay for a while, resisting temptation on our own, but always fail in the end, leaving us to feel unworthy of God.

But like our earthly relationships, we can’t heal on our own. And we can’t overcome temptation by ourselves. It is not until we soften our hearts and welcome God’s forgiveness that we can heal.

I invite you today to soften your heart. You may not be where you want to be, but you’re a long way from where you once were. Remember God’s faithfulness in the past and find rest in His faithfulness now.