Heat Reveals the Heart

I want to talk about how the heat in our lives reveals our hearts. Let’s say you’re facing a situational difficulty or relational conflict. There’s something going on, and you feel the heat. Imagine two bowls sitting under this heat: one filled with mud, the other with snow. When the heat comes down on the bowl of mud, it hardens. But when the heat hits the bowl of snow, it softens and melts.

This is akin to pride versus humility. Pride has many manifestations, but generally, we have a proud heart or a humble heart. The animation here isn’t about the situational difficulty itself. While I trust the difficult situation will eventually pass, the main thing we want to see is how it reveals who we are and our relationship with God. Two people can experience the same heat; one will harden, the other will be humbled by it. This difference points back to their relationship with God.

So, the first diagnostic isn’t about the situation but about our relationship with God. If someone has a hard heart or is proud, reacting sinfully to the heat, changing their relationship with God will alter their response to the heat. They won’t be managed by it any longer. Look at Joseph: the heat in his life never changed, he never left Egypt alive, but his humble spirit kept him from being managed by his difficulties.

Helping someone see this shift in focus is crucial. They might be fixated on the heat in their life, but we need to help them see how they’re reacting to it, which may indicate a need to address their relationship with God. The heat reveals the heart.