Heart Condition (part 3 of 3)
Our hearts are new, not old. They are soft, not hard toward God. Our hearts as His children are clean, not wicked.
Read carefully and closely consider what you hear and what you read. Jeremiah’s sermon about the wicked heart was delivered in real time. Ezekiel’s message is prophetic. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, Jeremiah’s message does not apply to you. Ezekiel’s does.
This is important because we are designed to live from our hearts. The heart is the core of us, the deepest and most thoroughgoing aspect of us. It governs all that God desires to have come out of us. From the heart we passionately convey God to others during our daily trek through life.
When Jesus appealed to His disciples and presented the kingdom to them, He appealed to them at their basic ability to respond to God—their hearts. They didn’t understand what He was saying until later—at Pentecost—but once they got it, they were unstoppable.
He does the same with us, and the devil—our adversary—recognizes this and wages an insidious battle to undermine our capacity and determination to live from our hearts. Thus the reason behind the heart-level wounds we have all suffered. Sadly, many of these wounds occur inside the faith community. But if you were the desperate devil, where would you attack?
With this awareness, it is all the more apparent why Proverbs 4:23 says, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”
It is essential that we live from our hearts. Failing to do so will render a spiritual life lacking in passion and unaware of the profound bond we have with the heart of God. No wonder such a war is waged for our hearts!
Unwisely, we approach life from our observations, from misguided theology, from our tradition, from our emotion, from our family history, from what we are taught, from our accomplishments, ad infinitum. Instead, we must adopt God’s viewpoint of life and of our lives.
It is in Him and through Him that we live, and move, and have our being. Why? Because we are His offspring (cf. Acts 17:28).
He designed us to live passionately, intensely, confidently…and to do so from a heart that is clean and pure based upon the finished work of Christ (ref. Heb. 10:19-25).
Be encouraged in your heart!
e written two books, both novels, to not only describe the heart but demonstrate it. No Mercy tells the story of the heart’s formation. Battle for the Round Tower is the story of the heart’s power.