We think we know ourselves (or at least I thought I did), until I began looking up what
God says about the heart. I discovered rather quickly just how blind I'd been, just how off the mark when it came to "keeping my heart." The scripture tells us that the heart is deceitful, that none can know it. Studying what God says about the heart showed me the truth in this, which is the reason for this post. I am hoping it blesses those who read it as greatly as it has blessed me.
It is only by being honest with ourselves--about ourselves that we can began to grow,
to become the men and women God desires us to be. It is in our hearts that we first
began to lose our closeness to the Lord. Like a boat without a captain we little-by
little, unawares, start drifting away from the Lord, from all that is good- real- true. It is
here that backsliding begins.
We failed to observe the red flags: How the world was getting our affection instead of the Lord, how we failed to keep our promise to meet the Lord every morning, to sit at his feet and learn from Him. We failed to notice that we'd slipped back into the former
way of depending upon ourselves, overlooked the fact that the only time we prayed any more was when a crisis arose. We no longer prayed as we once did, prayed simply because we loved HIM and it made us happy to spend time with Him. We did
not notice that reading His Word we now see as a chore- rather than a pleasure.
Is our faith constantly in motion? Are we living it? Is our love for the Lord hot, as once it was -or worse- lukewarm? Does the world see patience in us, and love, kindness, self-control, joy? Or does it see hatred, greed, envy, bad tempers, impulsiveness?
We are "to keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."
(Proverbs 4:23)To keep the heart means to guard it, protect it. We are to keep heart and mind walking
a straight line. A heart cannot be set right unless it is SET right, programmed, in a way.
Think of it as a clock. To set it correctly we have to turn the hands from hate to love, from sin to holiness, from love of the world to love of Christ, from self love-to love of others.
We cannot go through life living solely upon the occasional highs received from a song, sermon, an unexpected blessing, if those high moments do not change us, if
they do not put within us a desire to give out the good that God has put within.
It does no good to read God's Word, and understand it, if we are unwilling to do as
He asks us to do, if we remain unwilling to change.
