Wearing Away the Stone

Today I want to share another word from our friend Poemen, from last week. A monk named John went to see him, because he wanted to learn about hardness of heart. Poemen told John,

The nature of water is soft; the nature of stone is hard; but if a bottle is hung above a stone letting water drip down, it wears away the stone. It is like that with the word of God; it is soft and our heart is hard, but if a man hears the word of God often, it will break open his heart to the fear of God.

And the fear of God, Proverbs tells us, is the beginning of wisdom (9:10) and a fountain of life (14:27).

I love this picture of the slow drip of God’s word that erodes our hard hearts. When I think about the power of scripture to change our lives, Hebrews 4:12 comes to mind:

For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The words of scripture will cut right through you, down deep, straight to the heart.

But, in my experience, the Bible doesn’t usually hit you like a bolt of lightning. It’s not as fast and clean as a blade slicing through something. Scripture is powerful, but often its impact unfolds slowly.

Maybe it’s a passage that you need to hear ten times before the application to your life becomes clear.

Maybe it’s an idea the Bible has to present ten different ways before the meaning really clicks for you.

Maybe it’s a teaching that you didn’t appreciate on paper until some experience out in the world brought it to life.

However it happens, it’s that drip, drip, drip of God’s word, the repeated encounters with the Holy Spirit through scripture, that finally reaches your heart and can transform its thoughts and intentions. It’s steady exposure to the Bible over time that molds us into the people we were created to be.

All kinds of situations can calcify our hearts. Sometimes for very understandable reasons! Lies, wounds, insults, and betrayals can leave our hearts rock hard where certain people are concerned. But your experiences, your history, and your upbringing can leave you hardened by prejudices, too. Likewise, the steady drip of news and social media can harden our hearts against particular groups of people or causes.

When this stony exterior prevents us from understanding and loving and serving our neighbors, we need that living and active word to get to work on us. When we’re hardened against people whom Jesus died for, we need the word of God to wear away the stone and break open our hearts.

Don’t put off opening your Bible today. Don’t let your phone distract you or your real busyness overwhelm you. Make time for a few drops. Do it again tomorrow. You may not see any immediate benefit, but give it time. Water carved the Grand Canyon. Eventually, this steady drip can make something incredible in your life, too.

Listen to this week's devotional here!