Exodus 7:14 "So the Lord said to Moses: “Pharaoh’s heart is hard; he refuses to let the people go. "
Just as Pharaoh did not let go of the people of Israel due to a hard heart, so we don't let go of sin because of a hard heart. Sin hardens the heart so that the heart will not desire to rid itself of sin. It is looking for a place to stay and call home, so it gets the owner of the home to be comfortable with it's presence.Like a salesmen knocking on your door with a tempting product, it introduces itself as a kind stranger to be welcomed in your home. The more sin is allowed in and practiced, the harder the heart gets,sin turns from an acquaintance,to a guest, to eventually owner of the house! When sin introduces itself as a kind salesmen, it only advertises the pleasurable aspects of it's product without the side effects or cost, i.e, Satan to Eve in Genesis 3:5, "..and you will be like God,knowing good and evil.."..Never mind you'll die and know the pain/sorrow of evil as well.
Satan sells the alcohol's buzz- not the car wreck, the sex- not the broken relationship or the unwanted pregnancy/STD, the porn- not the broken marriage from unreal expectations/discontentment, the laughs- not the destroyed career/friendship by gossip.. etc.
Salesmen are trained to talk about cost, last and little... They'll skim over it after they see the product is desired by the prospect and they know they are ready to buy, convinced it is worth it regardless the price. Some salesmen (like the devil), will get you to sign the contract without even knowing it's full cost. Jesus puts up the cost first and clear with no fine print (Luke 9:23).
Like a neighborhood cat at our door, we can feed sin and cause it to grow and become a welcome visitor (Gen 4:7), or we can feed our hearts with God's word and cause our love of God to grow. That is why it is so important to remember our first love (Rev.2:4), One: because He commands and deserves it of course, and wants an intimate relationship with us. Two: because without loving God as we should we will start to love this world in ways we should not.
Your heart will inevitably love something,it is designed to love, direct that love to God, not to self or sin, which is love perverted, as Satan perverts all good things by taking them out of their boundaries and twisting them to another purpose than God originally intended (like sex, made for marriage, is perverted by fornication. Fornication illegitimately takes the reward of a lifelong commitment it has not made). A loving relationship is not easy and takes work, but the Lord must have our hearts, because when we possess them they are wicked and deceitful to our own spiritual ruin (Jer.17:9). But when we abide in Him and return to Him, what peace and good fruit will flow from our hearts and lives (John 15:4/Isaiah 26:3/Psalm 119:9-11) !
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