Mom drew some insights about the heart from Scripture. And really, where better can we learn the truth about the human heart than from the one who created it, who sees and knows it's fallen condition. Here is her words.
Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart's desires.
The heart is defined as intellect, awareness, mind, inner person, inner feelings, deepest thoughts, inner self.
Proverbs 4:23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
Footnote from Mom's Bible: Keep your heart: value and protect your mind, emotions and will.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.
Footnote: The heart is the inner self, which things, feels and acts. it is central to man (Proverbs 4:23) but it is deceitful and wicked.
From me:
The heart without God, without a bent toward Him is deeply wicked and deceitful. We live for self, things like anger and pride dwell freely in our hearts and lives. I feel like, even though I still struggle with those things, my heart's desire is for God, towards God, and to make Him my delight--and that is why those things, the negative emotions and thoughts that so often plague me are changing...although I wish they would go away all together, forever. It is definitely a work of the Holy Spirit.
Part of guarding our heart is taking every thought captive. 2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. Letting every thought that pops into our heads run rampant, stirring up diseased thinking will never lead to anything good. I find it in myself, if I don't put aside my unkind thoughts during work, I just get angrier, more unsettled and then it ends us coming out in some way, usually a hurtful way. One unkind thought leads to another angrier thought, leads to another antagonistic thought and so on and so on. I suffer, the people around me suffer, and ultimately my witness and my relationship with God suffers.
More and more I am coming to the conclusion that it's just not worth it. The things that make my heart fill with pride, anger, dread, fear, rebellion, unforgiveness....any kind of negative feeling, are not worth the price of losing my peace, displeasing God, and not being a good witness for Him. This life and the junk that comes with it is temporary!! I want to live for the eternal. It's taken a looonnnggg time for me to get to this place. And I have to fight every day to stay here, sometimes slipping back into the old familiar patterns of thinking. New pathways have to be made in my brain! But I want to get there. Again, a work of the Holy Spirit.
I am lead back to the story of Cain and Abel, one of the saddest stories in the Bible. Cain's problems started in his heart, he was angry and dejected, felt rejected and jealous. Those things, and we are not told how long this went on for, took hold of his heart, built up in there, until finally those feelings caused him to murder his brother. Negative feelings left unchecked lead to disaster. Genesis 4:7 You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master. When it comes to our hearts, what we let grow in them matters very much.
A couple of weeks ago I got extremely stressed out. I was overwhelmed, angry at everyone and the thoughts and emotions swirled round and around until they caused a whirlwind of toxins in my body. I felt sick. My head hurt, my body hurt, I was nauseous....I felt terrible. All from ill-thinking. I was reminded how important it was to keep one's heart pure.
God is so good in His teaching, in His reminding. Thank You Lord for the lessons you give. Help me, help all of us to allow You to be King of our hearts. Let our hearts be focused on You, be set up to desire You. It's funny, we just started study on the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:1-23. Lord give us good soil in our hearts. Let Your Word grow and produce much fruit. Lord, soften our hearts to hear You speak, teach us to obey Your voice. Lord, forgive my stubbornness when I fail or when I allow unfruitful thoughts to have sway over me. Teach us to guard our hearts. Thank You. In Jesus Name, amen.
Practice taking every thought captive to Jesus today.
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