Yesterday my wife and I went for a walk and we were astonished to come across snow. Most of the snow where we live has melted and most of the places we went on our walk were also snow free. There were however one or two spots where the snow was being stubborn and was persisting and was apparently refusing to melt.
As we trudged through the snow along the edge of one field I felt like it was hard work and so when I came to a gap in the hedge with a snow free path on the other side I tried to walk through the gap.
As I stepped forward I sank and my leg ended up knee-deep in a snow drift. It turns out that there was a ditch between the field we were in and the path on the edge of the next field.
When Tracey had finished laughing at me, she took this photo and then helped me out.
I was astonished that on a day when virtually all of the nearby snow had melted that there was this patch of snow that was so deep that I could sink up to my knee in it.
As I walked along I pondered this and it occurred to me that because the snow had filled the ditch so deeply that it would take longer to melt.
As I continued along, I remembered God’s words:
I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. (Ezekiel 36.26 NLT)
Like a large amount of snow which takes a long time to melt, we can have hard hearts that seem like they are never going to soften.
When we are negative about something, it is all too tempting to surround ourselves with like-minded people to ensure that we remain in our negative state of mind together.
God doesn’t want that for us though, he longs to melt our hard hearts and to give us tender responsive hearts in exchange.
Life can wear us down leaving us cynical and pessimistic. If this is how we are feeling, are we willing to surrender these feelings to God and to allow him to bring about a change n our lives by his Spirit? Are we willing to discover the life and vitality of the child like faith that Jesus wants us to live with?
Perhaps our hardheartedness is to do with unforgiveness? Someone has deeply hurt us and as much as we know that we should forgive, our hearts have become increasingly hard over time.
God, would you melt our hearts.
Perhaps our hard hardheartedness is to do with fear? Perhaps something went wrong in our past and it stops us from taking risks and stepping out in faith for God today.
God, would you melt our hearts.
Perhaps our hardheartedness is to do with a resentment towards God? Was there a prayer he didn’t answer in the way that he wanted? Perhaps we feel let down by God because he didn’t do specifically what we asked? As we confess these feelings to God I pray that we would gain something more of his perspective.
God, would you melt our hearts.
Perhaps our hardheartedness is to do with independence? We are quite happy to pray to God and to hear what he says as advice but we don’t really want him to be our Lord in every area of our lives. We would rather stay in control.
God, would you melt our hearts.
I could go on with examples but it is probably more constructive if we all pause and consider if you are hardhearted in any way?
If you are, there is good news! God wants to melt your hard heart and to replace it with a tender responsive heart that is open to him!
You can explore this in a reflective activity by freezing a tub of water with some string/rope in it. This will result in an ice block with string that can be suspended from a tripod or something similar. Place tea light candles on a tray or dish (with raised edged to catch the water as the ice melts) and invite people to consider the ice block and what is making their hearts hard. When they have talked with God about this they can light a candle as a prayer that God would melt their hearts.
You could also use a video such as this one or make your own. As you watch the ice melt, pray that God would melt our hearts and replace them with tender and responsive hearts by his spirit.
Honest about my faith 