One of the most crucial and yet difficult attributes to maintain is a soft heart.  A tender heart is an invitation to the fullness and completion of God's Kingdom in your life; it is the doorway to heaven's possibilities.

On the contrary, the prideful hardening of heart causes blindness and jealousy leading to death.

I'm going to say something here with great caution:  following spiritual traditions and practices - including prayer, bible study, church attendance, and even ministry or service to others - is not enough to maintain a soft heart; it requires more than discipline or habit.  A soft heart comes to the one who waits quietly before the Father, submitting to the oil of the Spirit, the removal of sins and offences, and the exchange of old nature for new.

Jesus was grieved over and over by the hardened hearts he saw around Him - especially in those who should have recognized and received Him.  In Mark 3:1-6 Jesus encountered a man with a withered hand and a group of Pharisees.  Anyone with any sense of compassion would have looked upon the crippled man and longed for his healing; Jesus took it one step farther - He stepped on the forbidden toes of the Pharisees and their rules, speaking life into a dead limb.  The religious leaders responded by holding a meeting to discuss how to put Jesus to death - over a man being healed!

How very blind they had become; how very hard were their hearts.  They chose to walk away from the Source of life, even seeking to condemn everyone to death by contriving to take Jesus' physical life.  In contrast we see Jesus' tender heart crying out for God's mercy on those who mocked and tormented Him as He hung, dying on the cross.  What was the difference?  What causes one man to walk in humble compassion, while another lives in passionate deceit?

Having walked through some very difficult and painful circumstances, I can understand the tendency to try and protect our hearts from further pain or injury.  Even as I write this I am crying out to my Father that He keep my heart soft in a specific area.  At times, when the road has been long and the journey strenuous, weariness pulls at us and distorts our vision.

I wonder if many of the religious leaders of that day had not started out as hungry, passionate young men, full of the prophetic words of God, longing to see His plan on earth.  But when things didn't come about as they had pictured in their minds, routine took over and soon passion turned into tradition.

Then Jesus walks into the picture, the Kingdom of God pouring out in His every word, and instead of being excited to see what they had long hoped for, jealousy rose up against this common man who dared to be different - who dared to be one with the Father.

Think of the elder brother in the story of the prodigal son.  He had been faithful in his service to the father while his younger brother had been foolish.  And yet, at the sight of his brother's humble return and his father's intense forgiveness, a seed of jealousy fell on his heart and it began to harden.  What should have been a joyful reunion between brothers turned into blind death for the older son.  Offence rose up in his heart against both his brother and his father.

Again, I want to point out that faithful service did not keep his heart soft.  Reading and memorizing the scriptures did not keep the Jewish leaders' hearts supple.  Psalm 119:165 says, "Great peace have they who love Your law; nothing shall offend them or make them stumble."  It takes more than knowledge of the Word; we must be consumed with a love for the Word.  We must hungrily grasp at both the sweetness and bitterness of it.  As Proverbs 27:7 reminds us, "...to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet."

If anyone had reason to be disheartened or weary it was David.  He had been anointed by the prophet Samuel as God's chosen king before his father and brothers, and yet found himself many years later still under the authority and jealousy of King Saul.  How he must have wrestled in his mind with the contradiction of this.  I Samuel 24 records how, once again, Saul sought David's life.  God's favor and protection were upon David, however, and he escaped, but not before he cut off a piece of the sleeping king's robe.

"Afterward, David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's skirt.  He said to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this to my master, the Lord's anointed, to put my hand out against him, when he is the anointed of the Lord." (I Sam. 24:5-6)

From an earthly perspective, David had every cause to harden his heart against Saul.  And yet we see here deep remorse at even dishonoring Saul by cutting his robe.  Only a soft heart would be "smote" by this choice.  David was one who earnestly sought God's heart - who jealously guarded God's words - and this alone kept his heart tender.  And true to His promised Word, on the appointed day and hour God placed David on the throne.

I know of no one who lacks dreams and visions from the Lord - even those who do not recognize them as such.  God has placed in the heart of each man, woman, and child desires with roots in heaven.  The question is whether we let the journey of life prepare us for our destiny and the unfolding of God's Kingdom purpose, or will weariness, routine, pride, and jealousy find ground to grow and what we once strained to grasp be the very thing we stand against.

Francis Frangipane said it well in The Three Battlegrounds:  "The greatest defense we can have against the devil is to maintain an honest heart before God."

An honest heart is a soft heart.  An honest heart is a heart that cries out in pain to the Father, but submits under the gentle surgery of His Spirit.  An honest heart before God is one who will see the Kingdom.