Kevin Horath - Living with a Hardened Heart

<p>Kevin Horath - Living with a Hardened Heart</p> <p>Author and Pastor Kevin Horath and I talk about a hardened heart. Not a physical condition but a spiritual one. He’s written several books but the one we focus on is The Pharaoh Factor - Living with a Hardened Heart. If you know the story, Pharaoh hardens his heart toward God, but what does that mean for us today? How does one acquire a hardened heart? How do we know if we have a hardened heart?</p> <p>Kevin and I both dug around in our own personal stories of what it looked like in each of our specific situations of having a hardened heart. How did we get there and what does recovery look like?  And just as important, we cover the question of how do we keep our hearts soft and teachable so that we don’t return to an isolated, fearful, self-sustaining condition? A condition that I personally know is exhausting, frustrating and it’s definitely lonely. </p> <p>I marvel at the contradictions of this life in comparison to the things that have spiritual value, specifically God’s spiritual value. Here are a few examples of what I’m talking about.</p> <p>When things are the most painful, the beauty of what God has for us on the other side, the healing, it is something that we couldn’t think to ask for. He wastes nothing and He redeems everything.</p> <p>When we submit ourselves, our situations to God, lay down things, in God’s value system we get better than we had, better than we deserve. It’s not simply restored to what it use to be. Rather we’re given what God Himself has for us. And of course the ultimate example of submission is when Christ said, "It is finished." Sounds like the final conclusion, end of story, it’s over. And yet, it was just the beginning for us. New life, direct access to God, salvation, eternal life, heaven on earth, and so much more.</p> <p>Another example is when we leave our old self behind (accepting Christ’s work on the cross), we gain direct access to our Creator. Direct access gives us the opportunity to activate an intimate relationsh