Heart Disease

“Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert…”

(Psalm 95:6-8)

In 1999, doctors inserted a stent into my Left Anterior Descending artery, also known as LAD.  Stents are used to open up blocked arteries in patients with cardiovascular disease.  The procedure went very well, and I was hoping this would be the last.  Yet, it was not to be.   This past September, cardiovascular disease once more reared its ugly head, and I was rushed to the Oklahoma Heart Hospital.   And once again, God was with me, as my doctor completed a triple bypass after 5 hours of surgery. 

Medical professionals estimate there are approximately 80 million people in the US with some form of heart disease, and 720,000 die every year as a result.  Yet, there is something just as lethal threatening your spiritual life.  It’s a blockage in your vital relationship with God that the Bible calls “hardheartedness.”  Psalm 95:7, 8 says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

My heart is hardened when I stick my fingers in my ears and refuse to respond to God’s promptings to change a specific area in my life.  It happens when He wants me to thank Him for something, but I’m silent.  I’m hardhearted when the Lord presses in closer to show me a bigger plan for my life, but I push Him away.  “No further, God. You’re just asking too much right now.”  In a word, we harden our hearts not when we sin, but when we won’t let God deal with us about our sin.

We all have little tricks to justify our lack of response to God. One common way is procrastination, “tomorrow, God.”  Yet, if God could do in our lives all the things that we’ve already surrendered to Him, our lives would be on fire. Is this true for you? Are you still battling with God about something you gave over to Him years ago?

You may ask, “How do I know if I’m in trouble?”  What does a hard heart feel like? That’s the scary part. It may be painful in the early stages, when God is convicting you of what He wants to change. And then slowly, even undetectable, you stop feeling anything prompted by the Lord—hardheartedness has set in.

If you’re like me, you’re ready for the remedy. It’s simply this: Today, do something about your heart. Right now, open your Bible to Psalm 95:6-8 and read it.  We never want to be far from the reality that the condition of our heart is our responsibility.

In the most loving and urgent way I know how, I extend to you God’s invitation to draw near. It may be painful at first, but allow Him to do a work in you, and heal your "hard heart."  Today, if you hear His voice, respond.


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