Zechariah 7:11 (CSB)
“But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they closed their ears so they could not hear.”
Stiffening the shoulder is the picture of an ox refusing the yoke. He plants his weight against it and will not take it on.
That is what Zechariah says the people did. They refused to pay attention. They closed their ears. Then something worse. They made their hearts like a rock (Zechariah 7:12).
Read that verb again. They made. Not their hearts grew hard over the years, as though hardness happened to them while they were busy elsewhere. They did it. Hardness is a work. It takes effort to keep a shoulder braced.
Then comes the symmetry, and it is terrible. Just as He had called and they would not listen, so when they called He would not listen (Zechariah 7:13). Grow deaf to the cries of the poor and you will find God grown deaf to yours. Peter says as much to husbands, that a man can treat his wife in such a way that his prayers are hindered (1 Peter 3:7). When we hold on to sin and defend it rather than confess it, heaven goes quiet.
Now sit with the problem. The only thing you can do to your own heart is harden it. You cannot soften stone from the inside. No amount of resolve turns rock into flesh.
Which is why God promised to do it Himself. I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). Jesus claimed that promise as His own work. He does not ask you to soften your heart. He asks you to hand it over.
Will you ask Him today to do what you cannot?
Reflect
Find the place where you have braced your shoulder against something God has clearly said. You know which one, because you have an argument ready for it. Stop rehearsing the argument. Confess the hardness as sin and ask Christ for a heart of flesh.