We are “fickled” people. Some of us are more indecisive than others. But what motivates our fickleness determines the center of our heart.
Like tetherball, if the rope isn’t securely anchored to the pole, the ball and rope are aimlessly being dragged and blown by whatever comes along. The rope ball combo has to be centered on the pole.
Take for instance, Pharaoh…
Pharaoh begged Moses and Aaron to pray to the Lord to take away the frog infestation, but once God did, Pharaoh immediately goes back to his old ways – stubborn hard heart refusing to listen to God (Exodus 8:15).
Pharaoh is fickled because he really doesn’t want to be tethered to God – however, he wants the “good” that God gives so he temporarily changes his mind. Pharaoh is really anchored to himself.
Our fickleness can even come out in ways of making deals with God like Pharaoh… “Okay. I’ll do what you say God, but it has to be my way (Exodus 8:25).”
We meet God half-way revealing that God really isn’t at the center of our heart – we are.
As we continue to read the Exodus account, Pharaoh was choosing to harden his heart. But then we see in Exodus 9:12 that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart. Pharaoh’s hard heart cannot be reversed at this point and sadly he dies with a hard heart. This heart hardening reminds me of Romans chapter one – The ball has detached from the rope and the pole, consequently they lay motionless on the ground ready to attach and move with whatever they feel like.
Even though Pharoah’s heart was hardened, we see a shift in that some of the Egyptians chose to listen to the voice of the Lord. Because of their decision to listen to the Word of God, their lives are spared from the plague of hail (Exodus 9:20). They seem as if they are back in the tetherball game.
But shortly thereafter, they too go back to not listening to God and consequently their hearts become hardened like Pharaoh’s (Exodus 9:34). Their faltering decision revealed that they too did not want to be roped to God.
Unless our end goal is to be anchored to God alone, we will be fickled people in a made up game of “un”tetherball.
We were not created to be at the center of our heart. When we are the center, the ball, rope and pole are detached resulting in an aimless destructive life.
What motivates your indecisiveness? Do you really want to be tethered to God? Or are you still roped to yourself desiring life to go your way and you follow God to a point, but then go back to your ways?
May today you choose to surrender any fickleing in your heart and tether yourself wholeheartedly to Jesus – the only anchor for your soul (Hebrews 6:19).