a tender heart

Throughout this Holy Week, we see ample evidence of the tender-heartedness of Jesus, supremely in His sacrificing Himself for us when we were and still act as sinners.  It's allied with that beautiful Hebrew word describing God, Hesed, best translated as "tender mercy."  You'll see His Merciful Heart all through the events of Holy Week.  Be sure to read up on them to go and be likewise.

I believe this is to be the supreme mark of followers of Jesus, that we are captured and possessed by that Hesed, in which the normal human heart of stone is replaced with that Tender Heart of His.  On the night before He died, Jesus promised that He would send us The Advocate, The Counselor, Who would prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment (John 16:8).  What would He use as His Tool of persuasion?  Yes, as The Spirit of Truth, He would use The Word of God to speak to the mind, but His ultimate Goal is to reach and replace the hard heart from which the will follows.  That tender Heart convinces us that we have been wrong about so many things and leads us to repent with a tender admission of sin, awareness of judgment, and appeal for true righteousness.  This is revival, and I sense that Jesus will soon send the Holy Spirit broadly, tenderizing many hearts.

We live in a hard-hearted world which, as Paul says, makes our thinking futile, darkens our understanding, and separates us from the life of God (Ephesians 4:18).  With all the debate and rancor that swirls around us, we can so easily succumb to that hardness of heart with its bitterness, rage, anger, and slander, along with every kind of malice (Ephesians 4:31).  Instead of steeling our hearts in this fray, let's beseech God to soften them, following the example of Jesus, and walk in the way of Love, just as Christ loved us, and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5:2).  What a pleasing aroma we will present to Him and to the world!