February 26: Keep Your Heart Soft

 

Deneisha Campbell-Davy 

Family Life Director 

Kings Seventh-day Adventist Church

Scripture:

“Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.”  Zechariah 7:12 (KJV)

 

Have you ever been hurt, battered and bruised repeatedly? Have decided that the only way to guard your heart  is to make it hard, trying to prevent the same person or persons from hurting you again and again?

There is a dangerous transformation that can happen quietly within us. It doesn’t happen overnight. It happens moment by moment, disappointment by disappointment, offense by offense, delay by delay. Slowly, the heart that once responded tenderly becomes resistant.

 Zechariah 7:12 describes a people who “made their hearts as an adamant stone.” An adamant stone is not just hard, it is unyielding, impenetrable and unmoved. The tragedy is not merely that they disobeyed, but that they refused to hear. They hardened themselves “lest they should hear.”

A hard heart does not begin with rebellion. It begins with resistance.

When we ignore conviction, dismiss correction, or nurse bitterness, we participate in the slow calcification of the soul. We stop listening. We stop responding. We stop feeling. What once stirred us no longer moves us.

But God’s desire has always been tenderness.

A soft heart is teachable.
A soft heart is quick to repent.
A soft heart forgives easily.
A soft heart trembles at God’s Word.

Softness is not weakness,  it is spiritual sensitivity. It is the willingness to let God shape you, correct you, and even break you if necessary. The soil that receives rain produces fruit. The ground that hardens produces nothing.

The people in Zechariah’s day hardened their hearts to avoid hearing the law and the Spirit’s voice through the prophets. How often do we silence what convicts us because it challenges our comfort? How often do we scroll past truth, excuse compromise, or justify attitudes we know God is addressing?

The warning is clear: a hardened heart separates us from the life-giving voice of God.

The good news is hardness is not permanent when surrendered to Him. The same God who warns about adamant stone also promises elsewhere to remove the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh. He specializes in restoring sensitivity.

Today, ask yourself:

Have I become resistant where I once was responsive?

Do I still tremble at God’s Word?

Is there an area where I’ve stopped listening?

I encourage you to pray for softness. Guard your heart against cynicism. Refuse to let pain turn into pride. Stay open. Stay humble. Stay responsive.

Remember that a soft heart is a safe heart and it is the kind of heart where God loves to dwell.

Prayer:
Lord, keep my heart tender before You. Where it has hardened, soften it. Where I have resisted, make me responsive again. Let me hear Your voice clearly and obey quickly. Protect me from becoming spiritually dull. Give me a heart of flesh, alive, sensitive, and surrendered.

 Amen.