When our family moved to East Point, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, our house was in the flight pattern for Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport. Every few minutes, all day and all night, large commercial jets would take off and fly over our home before veering off to destinations unknown.
Those first few nights in that house were miserable. The first night we would wake up somewhat startled with almost every passing plane. For the next few nights, every time a plane passed over we would be aware of it. But, we were no longer startled by it. We would just roll over and go back to sleep. After a few days, we became so accustomed to it so that the planes could come and go without our even noticing it. The reason? We’d heard the same sound in the same way at the same place so often without responding to it that we no longer heard it at all.
As with the physical ears, so it is with the spiritual ears. As it is with planes, so it is with the voice of the Holy Spirit. If we hear His voice often enough and we don’t respond to it, we become insensitive to it. Our hearts become hardened. He can speak and we do not hear it at all.
The same sun that melts the ice also hardens the clay. The same voice of God that would call you to repentance and faith can be a means of hardening your heart if you don’t listen and respond.