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Hard Hearts (Psalm 95:8)

Scripture of the day: Psalm 95:8

 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
    as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,"

 That may seem a strange verse to use this morning! Last night at our prayer service we did an exercise where we used examples from our own lives as to when we hardened our hearts toward God. It was incredible timing because my heart was feeling like it wanted to be hardened! 

 A sweet woman I went to high school with has a one year old daughter who had a liver transplant in December. She has been sick since she was 4 months old and they have just had a couple of months of reprieve. But this week there has been blood in her stool and she is back in Chicago. Either with an infection from the transplant or cancer, or something else. 

 My heart couldn't stand any of those options. It was trying to place guidelines on what God should do in this situation (which was just to heal that little girl for good!) I didn't want Sophia to hurt anymore and I didn't want her parents to have to feel hopeless anymore. And if those things couldn't happen, my heart wanted to get a little hard...I could feel it.

 But after last night instead of hardening, I felt peace. God has Sophia in his hands. (and actually, the report I heard sounded good last night and the family may go home today as results for tests appear normal). My first thought was to praise God for that! My second thought was to be glad that although I was asking myself lots of questions yesterday, I didn't go so far as to become closed off or hardened to God, against God, or the situation. 

 Take the verse above and fill in your own words. "Do not harden your hearts as you did at (or when)..." Look back and see how that hardening hurt you, or how in the end, it grew you closer to the Lord. I think that my just be the reason for a hard heart. When we get over ourselves and see God in the situation, we repent and grow closer to him.

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