When the Heart Loses its Feeling

 

“Many people smoke day after day, month after month, year after year and all of a sudden their ability to breathe is impacted and the lungs become hard. A lung is supposed to be soft and pliable but when a person smokes like that, their lungs become hard and the air can’t penetrate them” – Tony Evans. 

 

And so it is with the spiritually hardened heart. Progressive exposure to sin and participation in it cause the heart to grow hard, no longer allowing spiritual truth to penetrate the soul. Over time, the heart becomes like a callus, an area of thickened skin that develops gradually through repeated pressure or friction.

 

An interesting fact is that calluses do not remove nerves. Rather, they reduce sensation by creating a buffer. The thickened skin increases the distance between pressure and the nerve endings.

 

In much the same way, a hardened heart develops as a person is shaped by sin and the world. Little by little they become thick skinned, closed minded, and numb inside. Truth falls on deaf ears as the heart grows desensitized and becomes a heart of stone.

 

Scripture speaks of hearts becoming hard, dull, stiff necked, seared, and even blinded. These vivid descriptions show how a calloused heart develops, what it looks like, and the danger it can become.

 

As already noted, this hardening comes through deceitful participation in sin. “But exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb. 3:13). Sin hardens the heart, leaving a person dull and insensitive to spiritual truth and godly conviction.

 

Paul describes this condition as blindness of heart and being past feeling (see Eph. 4:18–19). Jesus portrays it as hearts grown dull and ears hard of hearing (see Matt. 13:15). In 1 Timothy 4:2, Paul uses language close to callus imagery, warning of those who have “…their own conscience seared with a hot iron.”

 

Here is the good news. A person can go to a podiatrist and have a callus reduced, allowing sensitivity to return. Smokers can quit and regain lung function and elasticity. In the same way, hearts that have lost their feeling can become tender again. Through repentance, renewed attention to God’s Word, and a willingness to respond to His voice, spiritual sensitivity can return.

​

Written by Craig Ressler