As I indicated last time, No matter how many times, or how many ways Scripture reiterates the idea that the heart should be our focus as believers, we still get caught up in the surface. The above verse is but another example of that. So let me ask you this. When you are trying to clean up your act as a disciple, what are you focusing on; your heart, or what flows from it? When correcting others, do you care enough to look past their actions, or only criticize the flow that is spilling into your comfort zone?
“For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” -Matthew 15:19
Jesus says pretty much the same thing here as the Proverbs verse, only in a different way. So clearly the state of our heart has a lot to do with the quality of our behavior. Yet somehow so many in the church try to skip over addressing the heart of self as well as others. Only to get it all backwards by fixating on the symptom, and not the damage causing the symptom.
If you find yourself mopping up a puddle in the same place every day, you obviously have a leak somewhere. If you don’t track down the source, not only will you be stuck in an endless cycle of mopping, but you run the risk of enabling rot and mold. Does that sound like your relationship with sin? We notice leaks where the land, if we observe it on the bottom floor, it could have actually originated on any of the floors above it. It is not much different from our heart. Past traumas lead us to seek relief, and the world is full of quick and easy albeit temporary painkillers. Just like literal painkillers, overuse can reduce effectiveness, as well as lead to other dangerous side effects. So our short-term solutions often just lead to more long-term problems. Causing us to lose sight of the initial cause of our downward cycle. Our patterns of behavior can be years in the making, after all, meaning they are deeply ingrained in us. So our coping mechanisms' origin can often lie deeply in the past. We can’t deal with an issue we haven’t looked for the root of, let alone find the courage to face that root when we do.
One hard reality we may face in all this is that healing can come very painfully. ask anyone who has had major surgery. leading us to guard our hearts from actual solutions. The thing is Jesus wants to be part of that solution. He wants to help you succeed. You need only humble yourself before him (1st Peter 5:6-7) ask for wisdom (James 1:5) and he will guide you through the labyrinth of your heart. (Ecclesiastes 3:11) Without a guide we can easily get lost in self. Unfortunately, we just can’t let go or move past issues that we refuse to own or acknowledge. They will always be like shards of glass hiding in the dark corners of our souls. That will inevitably reveal themselves at our most vulnerable moments. Won’t you let Jesus pick up the broken pieces, he already knows where they are, and he’s dying to show you despite your stubbornness.
“For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” -Matthew 15:19
Jesus says pretty much the same thing here as the Proverbs verse, only in a different way. So clearly the state of our heart has a lot to do with the quality of our behavior. Yet somehow so many in the church try to skip over addressing the heart of self as well as others. Only to get it all backwards by fixating on the symptom, and not the damage causing the symptom.
If you find yourself mopping up a puddle in the same place every day, you obviously have a leak somewhere. If you don’t track down the source, not only will you be stuck in an endless cycle of mopping, but you run the risk of enabling rot and mold. Does that sound like your relationship with sin? We notice leaks where the land, if we observe it on the bottom floor, it could have actually originated on any of the floors above it. It is not much different from our heart. Past traumas lead us to seek relief, and the world is full of quick and easy albeit temporary painkillers. Just like literal painkillers, overuse can reduce effectiveness, as well as lead to other dangerous side effects. So our short-term solutions often just lead to more long-term problems. Causing us to lose sight of the initial cause of our downward cycle. Our patterns of behavior can be years in the making, after all, meaning they are deeply ingrained in us. So our coping mechanisms' origin can often lie deeply in the past. We can’t deal with an issue we haven’t looked for the root of, let alone find the courage to face that root when we do.
One hard reality we may face in all this is that healing can come very painfully. ask anyone who has had major surgery. leading us to guard our hearts from actual solutions. The thing is Jesus wants to be part of that solution. He wants to help you succeed. You need only humble yourself before him (1st Peter 5:6-7) ask for wisdom (James 1:5) and he will guide you through the labyrinth of your heart. (Ecclesiastes 3:11) Without a guide we can easily get lost in self. Unfortunately, we just can’t let go or move past issues that we refuse to own or acknowledge. They will always be like shards of glass hiding in the dark corners of our souls. That will inevitably reveal themselves at our most vulnerable moments. Won’t you let Jesus pick up the broken pieces, he already knows where they are, and he’s dying to show you despite your stubbornness.
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