THE HEART IS THE THING – The Rocky Hearted Person

“And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.”
                                                                                       Luke 8:6 (KJV)

Unlike the Wayside Hearted Person the Rocky Hearted Person is a believer, probably filled with the Holy Spirit and has all the grace or the divine potential to grow and become like Jesus Christ. This category of people in the church are born again and very religious but not necessarily, spiritual; they might have an outward appearance and idiosyncrasies of a spiritual person, but lack the power of the Gospel in their lives.  Apostle Paul refers to this group of believers as babies in the Lord according to 1Corinthians 3:1 (KJV)

“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.”  And Hebrews_5:12 (KJV) “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.” This category of Christians might be born again for years and regularly attend church, yet they are unable to handle spiritual matters. The aforementioned scriptures clearly confirms the fact that spiritual maturity is not a faction of chronology or how long one has been in the faith, but how quickly one is able to grow in godliness.

But let us look at how the Lord Jesus described this category of people in Luke 8:6 (KJV) “And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.”  And Luke 8:13 (KJV) “They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.” The bible says when the word was planted on the rocky ground immediately it sprung up, that means unlike the wayside ground this person has the potential to grow in Christlikeness, but according to the same passage of the scripture it withered away immediately it sprung up. 

Which also means that this ground lacks the necessary nutrient (soil condition) and the climate to foster the growth of the seed planted inside it. This category of believers are very joyous at receiving the word of God; they would receive the word of God with all the amen and even a shout of joy, yet when they leave the church auditorium and are faced with the challenges of life they easily throw away the truth that comes from the word of God and rely on human ways of handling challenges that confront them. They also build their lives around human ideology and wisdom, instead of what the scripture recommends; they would prefer their own ways of handling issues at the expense of God’s standard. 

There are a lot of instances of young Christians who have been co-habiting for years and some even have kids together, without having any sense of repentance and when such behavior is quizzed, they will defend and give all the logical reasons why cohabiting is okay. They will always use the societal acceptance and norm as a form of defence. It is interesting to note that those who are supposed to be the light, have chosen to blend with darkness. This kind of believers are among those who are building their lives on things that have no eternal values. 

The bible talks about them in Mathew 7:26 – 27 (KJV) “And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.” Some Rocky hearted believers know the word of God, some can even quote it, but when it comes to applying it to their lives they always find themselves wanting. They prefer to build their lives on what is trending, rather than on what the scripture recommends. 

From the scripture narrative this category of believers normally build their house upon the sand, which represent anything that is human; remember Adam’s flesh was formed out of the sand (ground) according to Genesis 2:7A (KJV) “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground……………...”; the sand is not permanent and it is fleeting, it is never eternal; it stands for what is not stable and is at the mercy of events such as rain, flood, storms, economic crisis, power crisis etc. Some Rocky hearted believers will pray the loudest during all night services, and probably sing the loudest in the choir and happily go around having an affair without any regret. 

They have segregated their lives by different kinds of robes; they will wear their religious robes on Sunday and probably dust their bible and carry it along to church and then remove that robe right after church service and then tell God by their action and inaction that “I have finished with you God, I will catch you next week Sunday.” So although they are regular Sunday Church attendants and have a form of godliness, they are among the laziest and dishonest workers at the workplace. Instead of working hard during working hours at their workplace, they pile work on their desk and go around chasing non existing miracles from one prayer meeting to the other to the pain and the displeasure of their employers. 

They hardly read their bibles and pray consistently on their own; they are those who always run after the so called “Pray for Me Men of God”. During a conversation after church service some years back on how Christian professionals must stand above reproach in the discharge of their duties at workplaces. I made reference to how some Christians are under pressure to falsify reports just to please their bosses so as to secure their Job, guess the response I got from one of the believers to this assertion, “Man Mo Chop” which means “We must survive at all cost” in the Ghanaian local parlance.

The mannerism of a rocky hearted Christian brings to my memory the song of Darlene Zschech, a world renowned Gospel Musician called I BELIEVE:

                                               

                                         "I say on Sunday how much I want revival,                                                                                             But then on Monday I cannot even find my bible,

                                         Where is the power, of the cross in my life,

                                         I am sick of playing the game of religion

                                         I’m tired of losing my reason for living"

This music goes on to suggest that the Rocky hearted believers are content with going on with their lives, giving in to lies and walking in compromises here and there. They are among the lost segment of believers in the church; they won’t lay down their cause and they wouldn’t want to carry their own cross as our Lord Jesus Christ suggested in Mathew_16:24 (KJV) “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” 

This category of believers always want things to be done in their own way and terms and are also among the group of believers who would easily take offence and possible walk out of fellowship of the brethren when things don’t seem to sit well with them in the church. The attitude of the Rocky hearted believer makes Christianity unattractive to the unsaved around them.

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK WITH THE SUB TOPIC -“THE THORNY HEARTED PERSON”…………..