Resources/Articles
Are You Sensitive?
Not too many years ago, a small an unique plant called a “sensitive plant” was discovered. This plant got its name from its unusual reaction when touched. The plant would actually quiver and close its leaves upon being touched. Constant touching of the plant brought about a slow but steady “desensitizing” of the plant.
Our hearts are “sensitive plants.” When guided by God’s standard of living, that heart should be sensitive to the sight, sound, and touch of sin. So sensitive in fact, that we should say, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God” (Genesis 39:9). We should condition our hearts to always be this way toward immorality, foul language, and every work of the flesh.
It would do us well to heed the warning of God in 1 Corinthians 10:12: “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” In other words, watch out for being touched too much by the world to the point of being “desensitized!” Our hearts can be assaulted with ever-increasing dosages of sin that it takes some “big sin” by some “well-known person” to cause us to raise even an eyebrow. The slow but steady influence of TV, close associates, etc. among Christians will and has caused the problem found in Hebrews 5:12-14. It is a condition where brethren were unable to discern between “good and evil.”
It was a lack of sensitivity which caused Israel to become unashamed and “neither could they blush” (Jeremiah 6:15). Ephesians 4:19 says the Gentiles lived in sin so long they became “past feeling.” These Israelites and Gentiles and some Christians today have lived with sin, touched it, and heard it so long they have become “hardened of heart.” They no longer feel any sense of guilt, shame, or sorrow. They no longer “quiver’ and “close” as the “sensitive plant” does. Is there not a lesson learned from these people and this plant? Should it not be the thought conveyed in 2 Corinthians 6:17: “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord. And do not touch what is unclean” and as Ephesians 5:3 says: “Let it not even ben named among you, as becometh saints.”
Be careful about being too cozy with the world and finding yourself “desensitized” to evil. Neither let your feelings be placed on such a high level that God’s word comes in a distant second. Meditate soberly and constantly on God and His word, so your “senses be exercised to discern good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14).
