Posts Tagged: cold hands

“What Makes My Heart so Cold?”

On March 17, 2022 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”(Matthew 24:12, King James Version)

My hands are awfully cold these days. It doesn’t take familiarity with the Eagles song, “The Cheatin’ Side of Town” for me to recognize this simple fact. I am old, and even though my “hands are [not] as cold as ice”, they are pretty cold. Before I hug my wife in the morning, I need to get in the habit of heating up those little microwavable bean bags and hold them in my hands for a minute or so.

But there is another and much more serious problem: Sometimes my heart grows cold. That is not simply a problem in relation to my sweetheart. Of course, it is quite serious there, but a cold heart affects my entire life and all my relationships. It also affects my enjoyment of life.

Jesus said that, in the last days of the world, iniquity would abound and the love of many would grow cold. However, I suspect that Jesus would agree that it wouldn’t take the end of the world for this to be true. In the context of Jesus’ saying that leads off this post (Matthew 14), Jesus tells his disciples about the signs that precede the end of this world. However, the signs are the kinds of things that are always occurring. I think that this is precisely one of the points that Jesus is making: Be ready all the time. The end could come at any time. This is precisely the point of the parables in Matthew 25, so I think that I am good ground here.

I used to think that Jesus was warning his disciples (and us) about other people’s sins and their effect on us. I don’t think so anymore. I think that Jesus was warning his original disciples—and us—about the chilling effects of our own sin.

It is no fun to take Jesus’ words that way. It is much easier to point out and condemn the sins of other people. It’s more fun too.

But my sins are the ones that will freeze my heart. The evil things I think and do, the good things I don’t do—these are the optional winter that I generate. I need to stop opting for spiritual winter. I can’t do a lot about my cold hands, but the temperature of my own heart is in my own hands.

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