Your heart is up to you. How you perceive things, how you feel about things, and what you do about those things is completely your own choice. God will not force your heart to change.

Proverbs 4:23, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” If your heart gets hardened or twisted, everything you do becomes tainted. A hardened heart will have you doing things you said you would never do, showing up as someone you never wanted to be. Protect that heart of yours, my sister. It’s constantly under attack.

As we study the book of Exodus, we see God’s plan to set his people free from the captivity of the Egyptians. But there’s something in the way of their freedom – an Egyptian King called Pharaoh with a hardened heart.

A Pharaoh considered themselves a god. They were to be worshiped. They were above everyone and everything else. They had been raised and trained to thrive on ego and pride, and destroy anything that threatened their god like status. That heart was hard with no room for care or concern for anything other than their own success, comfort, gain or praise.

When it all becomes about YOU, what you can do and what you can have, you get yourself a heart issue. Check your heart now, Sis. Has it become about you? About YOU being right? About you winning? About this being easier for you? About your comfort? About your gain? About your appearance? If it has, then it’s become a heart issue. And the condition of your heart determines the course of your life.

God knows your heart. He knows what has become a priority in your heart. He knows if it’s all about what you want. He knows if it’s all about how you look. He knows if your heart has become so full of ‘self’ that there’s no room for him. And get this – HE WILL ALLOW THAT!

God will allow a hardened heart and the destruction it brings. He will never force your heart to change, that’s always up to you.

God has called Moses to speak to Pharaoh about letting his people go. But God already knew the condition of Pharaoh’s heart, so he warns Moses. Exodus 4:21, And the Lord told Moses, “When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go.”

Can I be honest – this has always confused me. Why would God harden Pharaoh’s heart? Why would God impose this difficulty? Why would God make someone so difficult and stubborn?

Ahhhhh … he didn’t.

God didn’t CAUSE Pharaoh’s heart to be hard, but God ALLOWED Pharaoh’s heart to do what HE WANTED. God didn’t force a change of his heart. The Lord knew how hardened and prideful his heart had become, and he simply allowed Pharaoh to determine the course of his life from that heart.

Was God ever out of control? Not for even a second. He already knew the course ahead. He knew exactly what it would take to free his people. He knew how he would use Moses. He knew how Pharaoh’s heart would respond, and he determined to display his miraculous power through it all. In 10 chapters, we read of 12 separate times Pharaoh’s heart condition caused him to create problems for everyone around him.

Did you know this really is a heart condition? We’re all dealing with a heart condition. A heart that is stubborn. A heart that wants it’s own way. A heart that has gotten hurt so it’s become calloused. A heart that has built walls. A heart that has gotten twisted. A heart that is puffed up and selfish.

And did you know that heart condition of yours affects everyone around you?

Maybe you’ve been affected by the heart condition of someone around you. When someone you love gets a hardened heart, gosh they can hurt you. When someone you love gets a twisted heart, they can create massive messes and you end up right in the middle of that mess. You can see how their heart condition created problems for you – but recognize your heart can do the same thing to others.

Pharaoh’s hard heart created a disaster for his own people. They were attacked by 10 plagues. Each plague worse than the one before. And after each plague, Pharaoh would beg for relief, and relief would come. But the moment relief came, his heart went right back to being hardened again.

Gosh, is that us? Our hardened, stubborn heart meets hardship, so we crack a bit. We let God in. We seek his help. We surrender to him. But the moment our circumstances get better, we go right back to our old ways.

Yip – that’s us! That’s a heart issue, my friend.

One of the plagues was an infestation of frogs. Frogs were absolutely everywhere in Egypt – everywhere but where God’s people were. Pharaoh’s palace was overrun by frogs. Pharaoh begs Moses to plead with the Lord to take away the frogs, and if he does, he will let the Israelites go. So, the next day, God causes all the frogs to die. The Egyptians pile the dead frogs up into great heaps and a terrible stench fills the land. But guess what – as soon as the stink goes away, here’s what happens. Exodus 8:15, “But when Pharaoh saw that relief had come, he became stubborn. He refused to listen.”

His heart went right back to hardened again.

Again and again, as things continue to get worse for the Egyptians with one plague after another, the moment there is relief, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened and he becomes stubborn, refusing to listen, refusing to change, refusing to release what God has told him to let go.

Who are you holding captive, my friend? Like for real – God has told you to let it go, but you can’t – or really, you just won’t. You hold on to the pain they created. You hold on to the anger you have against them. You hold on to your need to be right and prove them wrong. You hold on to some weird sense of comfort it brings.

Every time you’re suffering you decide to let them go, but the moment you get a little relief you just pull them back in again. Over and over again, you succumb to your heart condition and create the messiest course for your own life. And let me tell you how that will end for you – That will end in DISASTER.

If you allow your heart to remain hardened, if you allow that stubborn streak to always gets it’s way, God will let your heart get what it wants and it will be an absolute disaster for you. And here’s the really sad news – it won’t only be a disaster for you, it will create a disaster for your people too.

The hardened heart of Pharaoh caused him to chase the Israelites all the way into the Red Sea, where he and his entire army were completely wiped out. His heart condition did that.

God didn’t cause that hardened heart, but he let Pharaoh’s heart do what Pharaoh had wanted to do. May our genuine prayer be this today: “Lord, please don’t let me do what I want to do. Don’t let me be stubborn. Don’t let me harden my heart here. Don’t let me have my way. Save me from myself.”

How bad will things have to get before you fully submit your heart to God? They will get absolutely as bad as they have to, that’s always up to you. How about you decide this is truly it – you won’t wait for it to get worse. You won’t wait for it to get harder. You won’t wait for the mess to grow. Right here and right now, ask God to take any bit of hardness that has been growing in your heart and mold it into the the heart he desires for you. Surrender that to him.

Lord, don’t let me get what I want.

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