How To Hold On To Hope For Hard Hearts

Reading through the plagues God poured out on Egypt and the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart had my own heart in knots this morning. How could someone remain so rebellious and willful against God Almighty? I wanted to shout at Pharaoh, “Why not just humble yourself and worship God? It’s really the best thing ever!”


How many chances and how much devastation would the man endure before bowing before the LORD? Putting myself in the story, thinking of the misery of each plague on every Egyptian in the land — blood and lice and the stench of dead frogs — GAG! My imagination had me more upset at the destructive harvest produced by a single hardened heart.

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This, after having recently read through the major prophets and the devastation Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel were warning God’s people about if they didn’t repent. I found myself fighting for a hopeful outlook amidst the extreme and rapid turn in our own culture. I notice so many parallels.


Daily, we get a window into hard hearts through social media and news outlets. We also get a whiff of the potential of our own heart’s corruption apart from the light of Jesus inside of us.


Awareness of the possible implications of our current cultural climate can send us reeling if we don’t keep in mind a few things:


The Bigger Story

Knowing that we need to maintain awareness of God’s bigger story and the fact that we each play a part in it helps us look beyond the darkness and devastation. We can rest our hearts in the place God wants us to live. We live in the current chapter of God’s story, “Redemption.” We need to look at hardened hearts with hope. For the God who moves mountains and slays giants is able to break in and break through with His good news of redemption!


Pray: Help me love those who hate You, Lord. Give me courage to lay aside my fears, and let you love the hard ones through me.
God’s Omnipotence And His Sovereignty

Remembering that God really is in control, and nothing happens outside of His permissive will helps us look at the darkest scenario with hope. We should look for His goodness and mercy to come bursting forth from what might appear destined to become ashes. Focusing on the fact that God indeed does hold the whole world in His hands helps us refrain from the rampant cynicism and criticism that rises up in our own hearts upon encountering those touting their opinions online hoping to sway people to their way of thinking.


Pray: Keep my heart trusting Your goodness and sovereign hand working redemption in our land. Help me exhibit hope instead of fear or despair.
Scripture Is The Rock On Which I Stand

If our hearts feel heavy and discrouaged from the shifts in culture and the hard hearts blind to the woes of sin, we need to remind ourselves that feelings are . . . only feelings. Feelings are fickle and don’t control our reality. We can submit them to the authority of “Christ in us, the hope of glory.” We can go to scripture to remember the bigger story and recall the sovereignty of God. Being reminded of His purposes for redemption in the world can renew our hearts. By focusing on our Savior who endured His cross for the joy set before Him, our purpose here comes into focus as well.

Pray: God, help me to detect where my feelings come from and surrender them to you. Fill me with thanksgiving, hope, and joy in Your love at work in the world, and help me to be an agent of love.
The Joy Of The Lord Is My Strength

Ultimately, the secret to our joy is always going to be found in Galatians 2:20. Say it out loud: “I have been crucified with Christ. (I’m already seated in Christ in Heaven.) It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. (The Holy Spirit is the One who does the things He has created me to do in this chapter of His story.) The life I live in this body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and died for me.” (Faith looks beyond what seems true to what God has said is true in His word.)


Pray: Lord, increase my faith. Turn my eyes off of the world, off of my own weaknesses and sorrow, and help me fix my gaze directly on You and Your glorious plan. Fill me with the hope I need to keep pressing on toward the goal of Heaven. Amen.
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