PERSONAL COMMENTARY: Hard Heartedness God wants us and loves us dearly, but He does give us freedom to choose. In stubborn refusal to believe that our choices could be wrong, or that our visions could be misguided, or that we should even be questioned about our behavior, we become unaware that our hearts are becoming hardened.
We fall into a deep sleep completely unaware of God's true work in our lives. Eventually, our eyes don't see and our ears don't hear what we should do and shouldn't. Our hearts can no longer understand God. We will not and cannot turn to God and let Him heal us.
God will make several attempts to get our attention. He will speak to us through His Word and His Spirit. Our conscience will be pricked. He will even send in brave souls to confront us. Some of them we may destroy and lie about or simply ignore. Yet our hardenness continues to develop.
Eventually, God lets us go. Our bounty may become a trap to us. The more we have the more we want and the more we desire. We will think all is well due to the level of our riches and successes. Yet we grow blind and weak.
Finally, God allows us to live as we choose. There is no one to stop us from making wrong choices. And, of course, none of our choices seem wrong to us, because we are blind. Everything we say we do in His name becomes a mockery. We tend to to believe lies that reinforce our own selfish personal beliefs. This calamity is not unique to unbelievers, but can affect followers of Christ as well.
Hardening of one's heart is a gradual process. Our only hope is the radical surgery of Christ. For He alone can give us a new heart and a new spirit. The consequences seem clear unless your heart is already blind. God seeks us out to redeem us. The more stubborn our refusal, the more serious our situation may grow in order to break our unrepentative hold over our own hearts and our refusal to surrender it.