The Condition of a Hard Heart

One symptom of “sklerocardia,” that is, the condition of having a “hard heart,” is unwillingness to be grateful for the gift of life and its various blessings. Such inner hardness desensitizes the soul, making us feel numb inside… People today tend to be thankless, intolerant, self-willed, and so “full of themselves” that they suppose they are doing God a big favor just by being alive. They proudly assume they are always right, and therefore they convince themselves that life “owes” them something. Such thinking resembles the arrogant character of Pharaoh, who took for granted all that he had as if it somehow was his “by right.” In Hebrew, gratitude is called hakarat tovah (הַכָּרַת טוֹבָה), or the “recognition of the good.” It is an openhearted attitude that appreciates each moment of life as a gift to be valued. Hardness of heart can make us “forget” to see, understand, hear, and remember the truth of God in our lives (Mark 8:17-19). When we are filled with anxiety or fear, for example, we are forgetting the truth and risk hardening our hearts.