Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

These days, it will become easier for people to harden their hearts just to survive.  But as Christians, we are called to keep a soft heart. When it comes to hardening our hearts, here is a typical cycle of how it usually happens:  Self-protect          Hard heart                    Love grows cold When we build a hard protective layer around ourselves, our hearts, to self-protect (no one likes to be hurt), it may feel like we've "won."  But therein lies the deception. That self-protection leads to a hard heart.  And everything issues from the heart.  Our relationship with God, first and foremost.  But after that, our relationships with everyone else, including ourselves. And a hard heart can only to lead to less love.  Jesus warns of this in Matthew 24 - that the love of many will grow cold.  He even says how it will happen.  The increasing lawlessness around us, and just the disintigration of a healthy society, these will lead to less love if we're not careful. But

Here's how it happens, pretty much step by step: We get hurt. Instead of turning to Christ, we let the hurt turn into anger. We become apathetic towards God because we are caught up in our own pain (by the way, you can choose to turn to Him instead). Christ can no longer live fully in our hearts because our hearts are full of sin (pride, anger, rebellion, bad attitudes, etc.). Our love for Christ and others grows cold. We build walls around our heart so we won't be hurt again. This is a sad list, indeed.  But there is a way out! There is a way back to God, to sanity, to health,, to the good  life.   Repent.   It's that simple. Admit to God that you messed up, that you're hurting, and that you want to feel His love again and be at peace. When He knows your heart wants to do the right thing, He will meet you right there where you're at. What a wonderful, awesome privilege we have in Christ!  He takes us back!  Every.  Time. Dear Lord, I pray that You keep me close to