The Heart of Stone

Welcome to the Days of Praise podcast, a daily devotional by the Institute for Creation Research. The heart of stone, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, Ephesians four eighteen. The blindness mentioned in our text is the same word used to describe a kind of stone. In verb form, this word indicates a process and means to make hard or to petrify. Often, the word is translated as hardness.

The people of Israel developed a hard heart and mind toward God and the things of God, which continually grieved and angered the Lord Jesus. Even the disciples suffered from this hardness. Our text is directed toward believers who are challenged not to become blinded or petrified as unbelievers. This petrification in the moral realm can be compared to the loss of sensation in the physical realm, a kind of spiritual paralysis, as when sensor and motor nerves no longer respond. Who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all unclean?

With greediness, petrification of once living tissue usually takes place over the course of many years. As each organic molecule decays and is removed, the space it occupied refills with stony material dissolved in groundwater percolating through the host material. Or it may take place as material is injected into the living tissue, thus stopping all life processes. In just such a way, the hardening of the heart can take place slowly, but finally petrification is complete. Petrification of wood can be stopped by removing it from the decay and replacement process, but natural processes cannot return it to its former state.

Praise God that we can put on the new man with a renewed mind and spirit, no longer hardened toward the things of God. If you've enjoyed today's devotional, be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and please rate and review so more listeners can find us to support. Support ICR's ministry. Visit icr.org/donate. Your gift of any amount helps us to reach others with biblical truth and encouragement.

Thanks for listening. We hope you'll start each day with days of praise.