The problem according to Jesus is that our hearts are hard - like a path that is impenetrable. Does that describe your heart?

Often when a new office building is built, the designers of the office complex wait to put in the sidewalks until after people have had a chance to park and walk into the building. As the grass starts being trampled and eventually all signs of life have been stepped on and killed, the builders then put the sidewalk on the dirt paths.

Some of us have hearts that have been hardened because others have walked all over us.

Jesus is saying, some of us have hearts that are as hard as an impenetrable dirt path.

Some of us have hard hearts because we don't believe in God. Some of us don't believe in God because we are angry with God. Something tragic happened, and God has become the object of our bitterness. We blame Him for our pain. Some of us don't want to hear from God because we don't want to do what He might say.

What keeps you from hearing God's voice?

(If it is the pain or failures of the past, be sure to work through the snippets on Becoming Tenacious and Becoming Intentional).

The message of the Scriptures is that there is a God who is pursuing us and speaking to us. The problem is that we aren't listening.

Matthew 13:10-17

10 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” 11 He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables:

“Though seeing, they do not see;

though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;

you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

15 For this people’s heart has become calloused;

they hardly hear with their ears,

and they have closed their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

hear with their ears,

understand with their hearts and turn,

and I would heal them.'

16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

Did you hear that? You and I can know what prophets and holy people from the past longed to know! You and I can experience a closeness with God that others have wished they could have! They longed to have the kind of access to God that we take for granted in Jesus. God came to earth and walked the earth as a man named Jesus, and He offers us access to His Spirit when we choose to follow Him. We take this for granted! So many have longed for what we have!

Is your heart calloused? Want a more vulnerable heart? Want to hear God's voice?

Jesus says: "If your heart is hard then turn to Him, and He will heal you!"