Suffering alone won't change your heart

Food fails, water turns bitter, security disappears — and people cling tighter to their idols, not looser, even as those same idols strip away every last shred of hope. Hardship alone has never been enough to change a human heart. Something else has to happen first: a willingness to actually look up.

That’s worth remembering the next time you assume a hard season will automatically make you (or someone you love) more open to God. It doesn’t work that way on its own — pressure reveals what you’re already holding onto, more often than it loosens your grip.

Questions to reflect on

• Think of a hard season in your own life. Did it soften your grip on whatever you were relying on instead of God, or did you hold on tighter?
• Is there something right now you’d keep clinging to even if it kept failing you, simply because letting go feels scarier than the failure itself?

Prayer

Lord, hardship alone does not change my heart; only you can. Show me what I keep clinging to even when it fails me, and give me the courage to let go and look up to you. Amen.