Preparing hearts

Have you ever needed to have a conversation with someone, and you were just completely dreading it?

I remember a few years ago being in this situation. Things were starting to get messy.

Finally, I knew I needed to have this important conversation, and I was trying to mentally prepare myself for it and the accompanying uncomfortableness.

I had my point that I needed to make, and I practiced how it might go over and over in my head.

I realized that I should probably pray in preparation as well.

As I knelt down the night before and asked for help in this awkward situation, I suddenly felt prompted to take a different approach.

It didn’t really make sense to me, but it also totally felt right.

I knew I needed to drop a lot of my “points” and instead ask more questions, being totally open to any answer.

The conversation the following day was definitely awkward at first.

But… it resolved much quicker than I thought.

And I had been making one big assumption that ended up being completely wrong.

I have learned that God is really good at preparing hearts.

Laban did not want Jacob and his family to leave him.

So when Jacob followed through on a prompting and left with haste and secrecy, and Laban found out about it, he was not happy.

He gathered his men and pursued Jacob until they met up.

But that night, the Lord came to Laban in a dream and spoke words that softened his heart.

When Laban and Jacob had the confrontation, Laban said: “It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.” (Genesis 31:29)

God prepared Laban’s heart to take a different approach to dealing with his son-in-law, and it resulted in everyone being content and respectful of each other’s boundaries.

God can prepare our hearts for the tough conversations we have to face, too.

And God is probably also trying to prepare the heart of the person we need to speak to, too.

We’ve all got our agency, of course.

But I believe God is always working to prepare our hearts for what we will need to face next.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black