The Slow Freeze: How Numbness of the Heart Happens

To begin, we must first understand how numbness of the heart occurs. How do our hearts become hard, our ears dull, our eyes blind, and our souls numb? It is a slow, gradual process. It does not happen suddenly or overnight. It isn’t even like a snowball rolling down a hill, growing larger as it goes. When numbness begins, you barely notice it at all.

Numbness is not the absence of feeling—at least not at first. It is the slow erosion of responsiveness. It often begins as discomfort: something feels off, unsettling, or inconvenient. Instead of addressing that discomfort, we learn how to move past it. What was once sharp becomes dull, not because the issue disappeared, but because the heart adapted.

I asked AI to outline the general process of becoming numb, and it produced a surprisingly helpful framework:

1. Exposure without resistance, solution, or preparation
2. Adjustment becomes reality and normal
3. Sensitivity and normal responses are replaced by efficiency or ease
4. Discomfort stops registering
5. Identity shifts
6. Awakening becomes hard and disruptive

Let’s unpack this—but specifically in the context of spiritual numbness.

Spiritual numbness happens both slowly and quietly. Often, we don’t even realize it is occurring. Scripture frequently describes this process as a hardening of the heart and repeatedly urges us to guard against it. The Hebrew writer warns:

“Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day…so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:12–13).

We are commanded to take care of our hearts, because when we don’t, they are exposed, unprepared, and unguarded. And when exposure happens without resistance, the process of numbness begins.

Once that exposure occurs, the heart often makes a small but significant decision: to excuse or overlook sin. We subtly adjust our perspective, soften our language, or justify our behavior. What began as discomfort is now managed. But once allowance is made, the heart begins to darken and harden.

Paul describes this progression clearly:

“So I say this, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds, being darkened in their understanding…because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness” (Ephesians 4:17–19).

The prophet Zechariah describes the same reality in Israel:

“They refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. They made their hearts as hard as a diamond, so that they could not hear the Law and the words which the Lord of armies had sent by His Spirit. Therefore, great anger came from the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 7:11–12).

Jesus Himself explains this process when quoting Isaiah:

“You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive. For the heart of this people has become dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes…” (Matthew 13:14–15; Isaiah 6:10).

Paul and Jeremiah go on to describe the tragic outcome of unchecked numbness:

“Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done? They were not even ashamed at all; they did not even know how to blush. Therefore, they shall fall among those who fall; At the time that I punish them, They shall be cast down,” says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 6:15).

“But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron…(1 Timothy 4:1 – 2)

The process of spiritual numbness is painfully clear:

1. The heart is left unprotected, and resistance to sin is not practiced.
2. Small allowances are made for sin—“just this once.”
3. Repetition makes justification easier and easier.
4. God’s Word is ignored, and the heart hardens like stone.
5. Shame fades; the conscience becomes seared.
6. Once the heart is hardened, awakening becomes incredibly difficult.

So let us reflect this week: Are we caught in the process of spiritual numbness?
If so, take heed. Re-prepare your heart. Begin to resist again.

You can break the ice—but first, you must recognize that you’re starting to freeze. #BreakTheIce #SpiritualNumbness