Weekly Devotional 2-12-18 A Calloused Heart
All persons who have been born-again are saints position-ally in the eyes of God, but some are Pharisees in practice. Because of the callousness of heart, some have become blind to sin. Because of callousness they have lost sight that sin is an affront to God. That it interferes with fellowship with God.
Thinking on this, my thoughts were led to consider First John chapter one, where John was led by the Holy Spirit to write;
“1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life– 2the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us– 3that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. 5This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
If we want to have unbroken fellowship with our Lord we must, with the help of the Holy Spirit, not allow our hearts to become so calloused that we do not recognize sin. We all sin. This is the result of our fallen natures. Even though we have been given a new nature, created in Christ Jesus, still, we never completely shed our old natures. The Holy Spirit was given to us to help us recognize sin. When we have been alerted to it, we must confess it and repent of it. This will help our hearts not to be calloused.
A heart of stone, a calloused heart, will cause us to war against the Holy Spirit, and He against our calloused heart. Paul addressed this issue in his letter to the Galatians. From that letter we read; “16I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16-25).
If our hearts become so calloused that we do not walk in the Holy Spirit we will become like those of the latter day professed church of Revelation 3:14-17a. “14And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write,’These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 15’I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’–and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.’”
Who really wants to be like this? Only those whose heart is so greatly calloused that they have come to deny their sin, lack a desire to confess it, or repent of it. May this not be true of your or me.
The Lord adds this admonishment to His message written above; “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.” (Revelation 3:19).
Lord, if we possess a calloused heart, please do what is necessary to remove and cleanse it that we may be useful to you.
stevelampman@comcast.net stevelampman.com
Transforming Power; The Work of God on Behalf of Man
All Scripture transcriptions are from the NKJB