Hard Hearts and Stiff Necks

2 Nephi 6:10

And after they have hardened their hearts and stiffened their necks against the Holy One of Israel, behold, the judgments of the Holy One of Israel shall come upon them. And the day cometh that they shall be smitten and afflicted.

A hard heart and stiff neck are the results of choices I make. God wants me to have a soft heart on which He can easily write His law and a supple neck that easily bows in humility. God's preferred tools are soft whispers that can be absorbed only by soft, fleshy tablets of the heart. He does not want to do harm to my heart. He wants to penetrate it to the center with lovingkindness. 

A hard, stony heart, on the other hand, repels God's soft words. If God has to use a chisel or a pickaxe to get through the hard outer shell I have built up around my heart, it's going to be painful. When a whisper won't do, an earthquake and a tornado, war and famine become the jackhammers that God uses to chip away at the rock-hard hearts his recalcitrant children present to Him.

Likewise, God wants to bow my head with a gentle breeze. Better yet, He would like to see me bow my own head in reverence and lowliness of heart without His prompting. A stiff neck, on the other hand, neither bows nor bends. Pride is the ramrod that holds up the haughty head. If I am unwilling to melt the steel rod of pride that holds up my head, God may have to bend it with force. A yoke of oppression on the neck puts relentless pressure until the steel softens and begins to bend. 

God wants me to come into His kingdom, sit upon His throne with Him, and live with Him in eternity. Only people with soft hearts and pliable necks will be comfortable with God in His kingdom. Because He loves all His children, God will do whatever is necessary to create in them the conditions needed to qualify them through Christ's atonement to be with Him. If I do not soften my heart and loosen my neck of my own accord, He may have to create or permit conditions that will encourage me to soften and loosen. Without violating my agency, He will do all He can to encourage me to turn to Him and submit to Him. It may not be comfortable for me, but comfort is not God's goal. His goal is immortality and eternal life for every person who will accept it.

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