What’s the condition of your heart?

I just wanted to share this with you as this was on my heart this morning as I was praying. Sometimes while we are waiting for something, our hearts can be hardened in the process, especially if it is taking longer than expected.

We simply don’t like to wait.

Let’s be real. It is sometimes downright hard to wait for things: to change, to happen, to be given to us or to become available for us. It doesn’t help that our current culture further magnifies the pain and discomfort of that waiting process.

The Condition of Your Heart

How we wait is just as important as what is happening to us and in us while we are waiting. Sometimes things can take place in our hearts that prevent us from receiving that which God desires to give us. Therefore, the condition of our heart is an important consideration that we should continually assess in the waiting process.

In the healthcare field, we have a condition called atherosclerosis.  It basically means a hardening or narrowing of arteries, which silently and slowly blocks blood flow in the body. This, often times, is what may lead to heart attacks, strokes and circulatory issues.

This condition develops over time as a result of damage to the lining of the arteries. It can be caused by a number of factors including but not limited to smoking, high blood pressure, or a high fat, unhealthy diet. As the damage occurs to the lining of the arteries, a bump/blockage, called plaque, begins to form. These blockages can produce great pain and other complications. If blood is prevented from flowing back up to the heart, there is also a lack of oxygen, which can cause parts of the heart muscle to die.

So is the case with our hearts while in the waiting process. We, too, can develop a  hardening of our hearts while we are waiting.

Things/Factors That Can Cause Heart Hardening

1. Unforgiveness, which can lead to bitterness and resentment
2. Disappointment
3. Rejection
4. Loss
5. Unresolved hurt, which can lead to anger

While I have only listed a few, these things can cause blockages to build up in our hearts. This will prevent the flow of the healing blood of Jesus to move through our bodies. It can also lead to further pain and other issues.

These factors may also cause us to build up walls around our heart, which act as a defense mechanism for further injury. It can shut God, people and opportunities out and prevent us from enjoying the moments we have while we are waiting.

Is Your Heart Ready For What You Are Waiting For?

If the condition of our hearts are hardening due to circumstances and life events, everything in life that is happening to us will be clouded negatively by this hardening. We won’t have a proper perspective of the circumstance, God and sometimes the waiting process.

Any farmer will tell you that the soil of the ground in which you are planting has to be ready to receive that which you are sowing.  It is very hard to sow on hardened soil. It has to be prepped and softened first.

The Lord may be trying to give us what we have been waiting for, but the soil of our hearts are not yet ready to receive it.

What Does God Promise Us

And I will give them one heart [a new heart], and put a new spirit within them. I will take from them the heart of stone, and will give them a heart of flesh [that is responsive to My touch]. ~Ezekiel 11:19

This particular scripture is especially personal to me because I had a hardened heart over 4 years ago and didn’t even know it. I remember being away in graduate school for a week, the summer of June 2012, when God literally broke something in me. I was angry about a lot of things to the point that I began having dreams that I was fighting with various people that were close to me. I was harboring unforgiveness toward people. I had been let down and disappointed so much that I just didn’t trust people anymore or their words/actions. I had lost a lot of relationships and many were strained as well.

Yet, that week, Ezekiel 11:19 became my personal testimony. Looking back, it was a process that started way before 2012. That week just happened to be my turning point. I didn’t realize God had been softening my heart all along, slowly breaking up the soil. I was reminded that I had a receiving problem. Although I had accepted Jesus in my heart years before, I had not fully accepted and received the grace, mercy and forgiveness that the Lord had first given to me. Therefore, I could not give what I had not first received.

Maybe you find yourself in this place while you are waiting, where the condition of your heart has been hardened or is moving in that direction.

Don’t lose heart (no pun intended). Take your disappointment, anger, unforgiveness, rejection, unresolved hurt, bitterness, and loss to Him.

He is the great Physician who performs heart surgeries all the time.

He is the Master farmer, who knows just how to break up the soil of your heart to prepare you to receive what you have been waiting for.

Photo credit: Mindstepsinc, Word Swag, Brenton Balvin, CNE

Reference: Atherosclerosis

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