Inside Out: A 40 Day Journey to Transforming Your HeartSample

Stubborn Heart --> Teachable Heart  

For the past 11 days, we have been exploring the truth that we cannot trust our hearts and that we must humbly admit that we need God's help to see what is going on inside of us. For the next 27 days, we will study specific characteristics of the heart defined in the Bible to honestly examine how we need to transform our hearts. Now the real heart surgery begins. We will take time to pause, reflect, and ask God to reveal what He sees in our hearts when it comes to these heart characteristics. Then we can purge out the unhealthy parts of our hearts to pursue the characteristics of a healthy heart.

Today, we will begin by studying the stubborn heart vs. the teachable heart. Our hearts are either one or the other when it comes to God, His Word, and listening to others who have our best interests in mind. Let's dig in.

If we have a stubborn heart, we are determined not to change our attitudes, positions, or opinions on things, even if there are good reasons to do so. We aren't humble. We don't read the Bible to learn. We don't ask questions about what we believe and check if it aligns with what Scripture teaches. We don't seek counsel to make Biblically wise decisions. We have a hard time receiving correction or criticism without resentment or retaliation. We don't want to be wrong or have to change. 

How do we know if stubbornness is rooted in our hearts? Think about who's advice you are open to hearing. Will you submit to the Bible's commands, or do you instead follow your own wisdom, or worse yet, the world's? We get pregnant, and the world says, "Have an abortion. You're not ready. A baby will mess up your plans. It's easier." We get in debt with our uncontrolled spending, and the world says, "It doesn't matter. Get another credit card." We are in a relationship but not yet married and think, "How can it be wrong to be intimate when I love him or her?  It feels right, so it must be right." Jeremiah 7:24 says, "But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward." Our stubbornness leads us backward in our faith, not forwards.  We give in to temptations that become stumbling blocks, not stepping stones to move forward in our faith. If we maintain a stubborn heart, God will at some point stop convicting us and allow us to follow our wisdom instead of His.  Psalm 81:12 says, "So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels." 

If we have a teachable heart, we are eager to learn what the Bible says.  We are aware we have limited knowledge and need to continue to learn and ask for guidance.  We will let go of previous unbiblical beliefs and be humble enough to admit we were wrong. We are willing to change our views and practices in light of what we learn in the Bible. When our hearts are open to learning, we can receive wisdom from God and others. Psalm 51:6 says, "Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart." We strive to grow in having a Biblical mindset. We ask for feedback, and we respond well to it. We can receive truth and apply it, transforming our hearts from unhealthy to healthy. Proverbs 4:4 says, "He taught me and said to me, 'Let your heart hold fast to my words; keep my commandments, and live.'"  To be transformed from the inside out, we must have teachable hearts. 

Take a Moment:

• What traces do you see of a stubborn heart in yourself? 

• How can you be intentional to grow in having a teachable heart? 

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I want to have a teachable heart. "Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have gone astray" (Job 6:24). I sit here listening for You to bring areas to mind where I have been stubborn. "Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name" (Psalm 86:11). "Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law" (Psalm 119:29). "Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long" (Psalm 25:4-5). "Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your Spirit lead me on level ground" (Psalm 143:10)! "Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end" (Psalm 119:33). Lord, purge stubbornness out of me and fill me with Your truth so that I can humbly change my ways and become more like You. Amen.