Is Your Heart Cold or Hot ?

This morning I was looking for something in particular in our old (and I mean that literally!) chest-type freezer.  I had already taken some of the frozen food out so I could see down in the bottom when a great idea came to me!  I had been putting off ...and putting off...and putting off...defrosting the old freezer for WAY too long because it always makes my back hurt. (I have already taken an Advil and rubbed the "Blue Stuff" on my back before coming in here to blog this!)  But today I decided that if I was going to have to remove a lot of things anyway I might as well go ahead and get the job done and out of the way.  After months of putting this chore off, the frost in the freezer had just about taken over!  It was really bad in the corners.  You can see in the picture that I posted of the inside of the freezer how bad it was....but I didn't think to take pictures until I had already scraped some of it off !  And the picture of the frost outside on the ground is still not all of it!  I just didn't have time to work on the freezer and document it with more than two pictures!  :) 

 

There's probably not too many of you reading this that have this kind of big chest type freezer anymore.  But my husband likes to have a big garden and I put a lot of vegetables and fruit in it.  I found things in there I had forgotten about having so maybe our menu will be varied for a while now!  

 

After a lot of huffing and puffing I got all the food out and stacked in boxes on the kitchen floor. Then I covered the boxes with quilts so the food would stay frozen.  I took my blow dryer and blew hot air on the thick white frost lining the insides of the freezer .  Then I took a very STURDY metal spatula and slid it in behind the sheets of frost.  I was able to chip it away a few hunks at a time.  While I was bending over (ouch!) and getting the ice scooped up from the bottom of the freezer I started thinking about my heart.  Why that came to me I don't know!  I was thinking that sometimes even as Christians our hearts get cold towards God.  We don't even realize it when it first begins.  I can guarantee you that in a week from now my freezer will start to have a very thin film of frost around the walls again.  But it will take it many months to need defrosting again as it builds up slowly.  For the longest time now I would think when I opened the freezer to get some food out......"I guess I need to defrost this BUT..it's not really THAT bad....I'll do it later!"   I have said that over and over and over to myself.  I knew that: 1] it would take time and 2] that it would make me uncomfortable.  There are times in my life that I begin to get a cold heart towards God.  Or even towards my family or my friends.  It happens slowly and sometimes I'm not even aware of it because I am busy or else just don't care.  Have you ever had the feeling that you knew you needed to be tender hearted and closer to God but you knew that to do that it was going to take some of your time and that it might make you uncomfortable to get back where you need to be?  I have!   I have been in a church service and God would speak to me and start trying to melt my cold, cold heart.  ("For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me:"  Job 23: 16) Sometimes I would respond immediately.  Sometimes I would hold back my feelings and say......"I guess I need to change some things  BUT..it's not really THAT bad....I'll do it later!"   Sometimes I would just ignore Him and say..."This is going to make me uncomfortable and I'm not interested in that right now." 

 

All this was going through my mind as I scraped ice and carried it to the back porch and dumped it in the back yard to melt.  And a line from a song that I haven't heard in YEARS started running through my mind....."Why can't I free your doubtful mind, and melt your cold, cold heart?"  (Hank Williams)   Maybe sometimes God feels like asking us that question.  I don't want to be cold-hearted to God.   I want my heart to be soft and pliable and able to follow where He leads.  That may mean getting rid of some things in my life.  Today I had to throw away a few things that had gotten in the bottom of the freezer and overlooked and thus freezer-burned and not edible.  I get things in my life sometimes that are not the best for me and God has to come in and sort through and throw away some things.  Then, if I will: 1] spend some time with Him and 2] if I am willing to go through some discomfort as he points out things I need to change in my life, He can take my cold, hard heart and make it soft again. ("And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them:  and they shall be my people, and I will be their God."  Ezekiel 11: 19-20) 

 

Now I guess I need to go and see about cooking that plum cobbler pie my husband suggested after he saw several packs of plums I had in the freezer!  :)

 

May God bless you......

 

Marilyn