“So the Lord called upon the captains of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they took Manasseh with thorns, bound them with chains of brass, and took him to Babylon. Now when he was afflicted, he called on the name of the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers… Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God” (2 Chronicles 33:11-13).
Hard hearts need to be “opened”, and sometimes the only thing that will open them is adversity. For this reason, we need to be careful about our approach to adversity.
Difficulty has a punishing effect on us. If our hearts have begun to be hardened by a sense of pride or self-reliance, the unwanted pain of some serious hardship may be a beneficial thing. It can soften our hearts and open them by reminding us of the proper reverence for our Creator, thus restoring our perspective.
Of course, suffering does not always soften a person’s heart. Sometimes it also has the opposite effect. Of those living in his time, Jeremiah said, “O Lord, are you not focused on the truth? You have slain them, but they have not mourned; you have destroyed them, but they have refused to be chastised. They have set their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to turn back” (Jeremiah 5:3). If we have chosen a “victim mentality” as our basic approach to life, suffering will only make us feel more sorry for ourselves – our hardened hearts will only become harder and angrier. There may come a time when, for all practical purposes, we will lose our ability to hear the truth, even when God is using adverse circumstances to get our attention.
However, pain often has beneficial effects, at least in the long run. Difficulty has a way of scratching the shell around our hearts deeply enough to expose a little bit of the truth we are resisting, and the result is a more receptive, honest response to the circumstances around us. We are wise if we allow adversity to have such an effect on us.
There is a vital sense in which we are strongest in the most painful moments of weakness. At least this much is true: our greatest opportunities Grow Strength comes when we respond to reminders of our weakness with humility and honesty.
“Sorrow cuts and opens our hearts, that the truth may penetrate into our inmost nature and soak up the tilled ground like rain” (Charles Hayden Spurgeon).
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com AreYouaChristian.com
