Life has a way of piling things on. Over the past few months, it has felt like wave after wave has hit without giving me a chance to catch my breath. My health took a serious turn near the end of my pregnancy, and then I stepped straight into the consuming days of caring for a newborn. At the same time, I faced some disappointments in relationships and in places where I had hoped to find support. And on top of it all, I walked through the heartbreak of losing my grandfather, who was such an important part of my life.
Each of these trials on their own would have been difficult, but together they began to wear down my spirit in ways I didn’t even notice at first. Slowly, and almost without realizing it, I began to harden my heart. I started bracing myself for more hurt and disappointment, keeping people at a distance, and even closing myself off from fully trusting God. I caught myself feeling more guarded than tender, more weary than hopeful, more cynical than joyful.
The Bible talks a lot about the condition of our hearts. When Pharaoh refused to listen to God in Exodus, it was because his heart was hardened. Even the disciples, after seeing Jesus perform miracles, failed to understand because their hearts were hardened (Mark 6:52). A hardened heart is one that stops listening, stops trusting, and starts trying to protect itself by shutting down. That is where I found myself. I wanted to trust God, but I realized that my heart had grown numb under the weight of everything happening around me.
But God never leaves us in that state. He promises something far better. In Ezekiel 36:26, He says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” What a relief to know that even when my heart feels like stone, He has the power to make it tender again. He has the ability to breathe life into the very places that feel the most lifeless.
As I’ve wrestled with all of this, I’ve been reminded that softening my heart isn’t something I can do by sheer willpower. It is something God does as I bring my brokenness to Him. When I come to Him weary, He offers rest, just as Jesus promised in Matthew 11:28. When I open His Word, even if it’s only a verse or two in the middle of a chaotic day, He uses it to speak truth into my soul. And when I look at Christ, I’m reminded that joy is not dependent on my circumstances.
A hardened heart tries to carry its burdens alone, to shut out pain by closing off. But Jesus offers a better way. He invites us to bring the heaviness of our lives to Him and exchange it for His rest. It is not a rest free from hardship, but a rest for the soul that comes from knowing we are safe in His hands. As we learn to abide in Him, the hardness gives way not just to rest but to joy. In John 15, Jesus described Himself as the true vine and His followers as branches. To remain in Him is to remain in His love, to draw life from Him as our source. After teaching this, He gave the reason: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). The end of a softened heart is not merely survival, it is fullness of joy in Christ Himself.
I won’t pretend that my heart has completely softened overnight. It is a process, and most days I still feel weighed down by grief, frustration, and fatigue. But I can see God working. Little by little, He is replacing hardness with tenderness, weariness with peace, and sorrow with glimpses of joy.
If you find yourself in a season where life has hardened your heart, know that you are not alone. It happens to all of us when the struggles of this world become too heavy to carry. But take heart that God is faithful. He delights in softening what feels unmovable, in turning stone into flesh, and in bringing hope where it feels lost.
Prayer for today:
Lord,
You see the weight I am carrying, the struggles that have pressed down on my heart, and the ways I have grown weary. Forgive me for the times I have let my heart grow hard. Take the places that feel like stone and make them soft again. Remind me of Your goodness, even when life feels heavy. Help me to trust You with my pain and disappointment, and fill me with the joy that only comes from You. Today, I lay my heart before You. Shape it, heal it, and make it new.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
