Hardened Hearts

Have you ever encountered someone who is downright obstinate?

Do you think that is God's doing?

So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses. - Romans 9:18

In today's reading from Paul's Letter to the Romans, we get a simple explanation of God's mercy.  He chooses those on whom he will dispense mercy, and those on whom he will not.

It is all God's doing.

All throughout Exodus, we read that God hardens the heart of Pharaoh, keeping him from choosing to free God's people, to let them go with Moses.  Why would God give Moses the power to bring plague upon plague on Egypt only to turn around and have Pharaoh stand firm?

Is this really the way God works, or is it the way it appears to us?

I like to think it is the latter, that the hardening of our hearts is totally our own doing, that God would not cause us to be cold and insensitive or uninterested in the wellbeing of others.

Call me foolish or naïve, but perhaps it is that foolishness that sets us Christians apart from our Abrahamic brothers.  In Christ, we have a vision of God, our Father, as all merciful, all loving, and always ready to take us home.

That's not the heart hardening God of Moses.  But why then would Paul, a follower of Christ, see God that way?

What Paul is trying to explain is something quite different.  He wants people to know they don't obtain God's mercy by inheritance, through the blood line.  It is God who imparts mercy as He wills.

So, it is up to us, then, to live our lives in such a way as to ensure that God would seek to grant us mercy.  Even though God gives it willingly and freely, we need to be ready to accept it, and not claim it without being in the right state of mind, body and soul.

So, it is by our doing that we come into a state where our hearts may be hardened.

That makes sense to me.  So long as I strive to be worthy of God's grace and mercy, even though I can do nothing to deserve it, I will keep my heart from hardening.  I will have done my part, done my best.

That's all we can expect of ourselves, isn't it?  We do our best and God does the rest.

If I'm wrong, though, and God chooses to harden my heart against my will, then I will know, and believe me, I will do my damnedest to set myself back in His good graces.

As long as I don't give up, I'll be ok.  Right?

More to come...