Have you ever felt emotionally numb? Disconnected from people, from hope, and even from God? That’s the condition Scripture calls a “hard heart.” It can form slowly through disappointment, sin, pride, or even pain that goes unhealed. But the truth is sobering. A hard heart doesn’t just shut others out; it shuts God out.

In Ezekiel 36, God is speaking to a people who had rebelled against Him. Their hearts had become like stone… unresponsive, cold, and resistant to His love and truth. And yet, what does God promise? Not condemnation, not abandonment. God promises transformation. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” – Ezekiel 36:26

God doesn’t just want obedience, a certain behavior, or outward change. He wants relationship, but a hard heart isn’t good at any relationship. Hard hearts resist love, deflect conviction, and doubt grace. That’s why God offers something radical: not to fix the old heart, but to replace it altogether.

Many of us struggle with this at some point in our lives. We can even see this struggle in Jesus’ disciples. After witnessing the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, Mark 6:52 says,“They had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.” How could their hearts be hard right after a miracle? Because hardness of heart isn’t always rebellion. Sometimes it’s spiritual dullness, distraction, or fear that keeps us from really seeing God at work.

We read about hard hearts in Ephesians 4:18, too.“They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”

Hard hearts leave us separated from the life of God. Hard hearts keep us from the joy, intimacy, and freedom God desires for us. But here’s the good news: God doesn’t leave us in that place. He acts not because we deserve it, but because God desires a relationship with us. When we surrender, He removes the heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh… one that can love, respond, and grow.