Growing Up Arrested Development The Harding of the Heart

Growing Up

Arrested Development

The Harding of the Heart 

“Test me, O Lord, and try me,

examine my heart and my mind”

Psalm 26:2 NIV

It is a good idea to get a heart checkup regularly

Let God examine your heart for hardness that is hindering your growth

Ask Him how to keep your heart vibrant and healthy

If you have arrested development it is time to get set free

In Ephesians 4:18, we are told this

growing up into the head which is

Christ becomes hindered by a process of…

“Hardening of their hearts”

Where sensitivity is lost.

I believe we are born with sensitive hearts.

The other day my four year old grandson thought I

was upset at him and I could see his heart was broken.

I am amazed at how sensitive little children are.

How quickly that sensitive heart can

get hurt and a reaction takes place.

Ideas seem to form quickly and attitudes manifest.

When we think of the heart we think of love.

We tell those we love,

“I love you with all my heart”.

It is that loving heart that can

be the most sensitive to pain.

Heart break can be more damaging

to our future than broken bones.

 It is impossible to count how many times a

person’s heart will be broken in a life time.

Our hearts are sensitive to ourselves, we be-

come very protective about the things we want.

Children who don’t get their way

quickly show their displeasure…

Crying and rebellion.

 As parents, we must be very alert to these moments

even though they wear us out and are never timely…

Because the heart is being shaped.

The heart has a job.

 It is to supply life giving blood.

The heart is meant to supply life.

  

When the heart becomes harden or

calloused the supply of life is hindered.

Many people don’t realize they have heart trouble.

Even though they live below

standard they think that is the normal.

When the heart becomes

hardened development is arrested.

All life does not stop but there is an area

of life that never grows beyond that point.

Sometimes development stops because

of a crises and fear hardens the heart.

It becomes normal to live life with little faith and hope.

Other times the heart becomes hardened and selfish.

We stopped growing when we were young,

a tender heart could not grow past our own desires.

When the heart becomes hard, life decreases

and we don’t feel the energy or the desire to try.

Fear and doubt are signs of a harden

heart that development is arrested.

Loss of the heart’s sensitivity

will lead to self-gratification.

“Indulge in every kind of impurity,

with a continual lust for more.”

As parents and adults we need to watch

for the condition of children’s hearts…

In order that they will continue to grow.

As adults we need to check our hearts and even

ask God to examine our heart like David who said…

“Test me, O Lord, and try me,

examine my heart and my mind”

Psalm 26:2 NIV

It is a good idea to get a

heart checkup regularly.

Let God examine your heart for

hardness that is hindering your growth.

Ask Him how to keep your

heart vibrant and healthy.

If you have arrested development

it is time to get set free.

Scripture Reading

Ephesians 4:14-19 NIV

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.