Guard Your Heart
Sunday, July 03, 2016
"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."
Proverbs 4:23
Do you ever wonder why your mind is constantly cluttered with so many things? You constantly find the most random of thoughts popping into your head and you don't know where they came from? Well, let me tell you something, these things all flow from your heart. I'm not talking about your physical heart. I'm talking about the heart that supposedly gets broken, the heart that people advise you to choose "head over heart", the heart that the Bible says is wicked; who can know it?
Here's another truth, we decide what we put in our hearts. We decide what we fill it with. Granted, we are born with some of its chambers, such as love, sin, doubt, yet the majority of others things, we introduce ourselves. The condition of our heart determines our standing before God. Meaning that, however our heart is affects our relationship with God. This is why it it utterly important that we guard our hearts and try to keep it as clean as possible. And not only that, but allow God to clean it. (John 17:17)
A lot of us are guilty of polluting this heart with many things, without even realising it. One thing about our heart is that it is deceitful. It can make you believe that you are perfectly clean and perfect and holy when in fact you are rotten and dead (Revelation 3:17). This is why we must constantly be examining it and examining ourselves to see what we hold in our hearts. Ask yourself right now, What do I hold in my heart? Love? Unforgiveness? Anger? Pride? Hatred? Doubt? Make sure that you identify these things and commit them to God and also put in effort to fix them today.
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
Jeremiah 17:9
Everything that we do, every word, every action, every thought, affects the condition of our heart. Nothing is ever neutral. Never. It is always either getting better, or getting worse. We live in such a generation where it is extremely easy to pollute your heart daily, through abusive use of the Internet and many other things. Usually, we are not even aware of when we are worsening our hearts, but it is an urge, especially today, to address these unknown things. Being Christians, we must be more careful than others in anything and everything that we do.
Things that can significantly influence your heart include movies, TV shows, friends, books, pictures, videos, songs, dances, and whatever else we spend a lot of time doing. Many of us are not aware of the danger that lies in many of the TV Shows that are available to watch today, and yet we indulge in these shows. The Vampire Diaries, Orange is the New Black, Pretty Little Liars, Empire, Game of Thrones, you name it. I often wonder why people, most especially Christians, enjoy watching the things that God hates. How can you feel comfortable spending your time watching shows that glorify fornication and being petty and killing others and the lust for money and so on? How is it that you claim to love God on Sunday morning yet Sunday night you are indulging in porn? There is no justification for these things. Being a Christian means taking up your cross daily. It means crucifying the desires of your flesh daily. It means saying NO to the things that your flesh loves. It is this self-control that allows us to grow and the Christians in the 21st century are in desperate need of it.
Music tends to be a hard one for people because it just sounds so good, right? You can't help dancing to a good beat or picking up a new rap because it's just too good to ignore. But let me alert you of something, before Satan fell he was the chief musician amongst the angels. He knows how to use music to destroy peoples lives. Some of these popular songs that are listened to, grime music, trap music, R&B, pop songs, rock music - they have a common theme. They tend to praise what God hates. The hearts of the musicians create songs that glorify the same sins that nailed Christ to the cross. It isn't right that we listen to this music because the lyrics of such, whether you realise it or not, they affect us. We need to train ourselves on how to reject the things of this world. 1 John 2:15 says "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
I am not saying that any show or movie or song that doesn't say Jesus Jesus Jesus all over it is bad. Don't get me wrong. I'm just trying to tell you that we should avoid things that God hates. God loves positivity and encouragement and the right kind of love, so it's okay to listen to things that edify us or make us better in this way. But when we listen to things that encourage us to hate each other, or be sly to one another, or be hostile towards your ex, or cause harm to other people, when we listen to these things whether you like it or not we take them to heart. Whether it be subconsciously or not, we slowly start to look at things with that mindset or attitude and this is not what God calls us to do.
When I gave my life to Christ, being honest, it was very hard. It was hard because I loved the very things that God hated. I remember going through my music playlists and deleting and deleting and deleting. It was painful, I won't lie. But in the end, today, I look back and I am glad I got rid of those toxic things. I am happy that the music I now listen to brings joy to my ears and helps me to thank God even more for providing music that lifts my spirits, for providing music that makes me happy that I am a Christian. When you want to get serious about God, it requires sacrifice and a lot of it. Jesus said count the cost before you enter this race. "And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." (Matthew 11:38)
Proverbs 4:23 instructs us to guard our hearts with all DILIGENCE. That is to say that we must put in hard work to protect our hearts. It's not going to be an easy thing to give up so much or abstain from worldly pleasures but it is certainly worth it. Fill your heart with the word of God by studying, not just reading, it as often as possible and see if your life, perspective and everything about you isn't transformed. The Word of God is not just a book, it is life, it is spirit. This is why it transforms us when we study it, when we not only hear what it says, but obey.
It is not easy to do all of this, I know that and God knows that. The Bible says "for by strength shall no man prevail" (1 Samuel 2:9). Our own strength will never be enough to keep up going. This is why we have to learn to totally rely and depend on God. When we are faced with the challenge of yielding to these harmful things or saying no, we must learn to commit it to God. I dare you today that whenever you are tempted, you pray immediately and commit the issue to God, then get on your feet and walk away from it. That TV show will survive without you. BE TRIUMPHANT. Allow Christ to reign in you today.
I pray now that God will give you the strength and the grace to walk away from the things that he hates. I pray that he will help you to identify the wrong things in your heart and start working with you to fix them today. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.
If you have any questions or comments, as always, contact me at the links you'll find in the banner.
I hope you have a lovely day.
God bless.
"Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established."
Proverbs 16:3
Here's another truth, we decide what we put in our hearts. We decide what we fill it with. Granted, we are born with some of its chambers, such as love, sin, doubt, yet the majority of others things, we introduce ourselves. The condition of our heart determines our standing before God. Meaning that, however our heart is affects our relationship with God. This is why it it utterly important that we guard our hearts and try to keep it as clean as possible. And not only that, but allow God to clean it. (John 17:17)
A lot of us are guilty of polluting this heart with many things, without even realising it. One thing about our heart is that it is deceitful. It can make you believe that you are perfectly clean and perfect and holy when in fact you are rotten and dead (Revelation 3:17). This is why we must constantly be examining it and examining ourselves to see what we hold in our hearts. Ask yourself right now, What do I hold in my heart? Love? Unforgiveness? Anger? Pride? Hatred? Doubt? Make sure that you identify these things and commit them to God and also put in effort to fix them today.
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
Jeremiah 17:9
Everything that we do, every word, every action, every thought, affects the condition of our heart. Nothing is ever neutral. Never. It is always either getting better, or getting worse. We live in such a generation where it is extremely easy to pollute your heart daily, through abusive use of the Internet and many other things. Usually, we are not even aware of when we are worsening our hearts, but it is an urge, especially today, to address these unknown things. Being Christians, we must be more careful than others in anything and everything that we do.
Things that can significantly influence your heart include movies, TV shows, friends, books, pictures, videos, songs, dances, and whatever else we spend a lot of time doing. Many of us are not aware of the danger that lies in many of the TV Shows that are available to watch today, and yet we indulge in these shows. The Vampire Diaries, Orange is the New Black, Pretty Little Liars, Empire, Game of Thrones, you name it. I often wonder why people, most especially Christians, enjoy watching the things that God hates. How can you feel comfortable spending your time watching shows that glorify fornication and being petty and killing others and the lust for money and so on? How is it that you claim to love God on Sunday morning yet Sunday night you are indulging in porn? There is no justification for these things. Being a Christian means taking up your cross daily. It means crucifying the desires of your flesh daily. It means saying NO to the things that your flesh loves. It is this self-control that allows us to grow and the Christians in the 21st century are in desperate need of it.
Music tends to be a hard one for people because it just sounds so good, right? You can't help dancing to a good beat or picking up a new rap because it's just too good to ignore. But let me alert you of something, before Satan fell he was the chief musician amongst the angels. He knows how to use music to destroy peoples lives. Some of these popular songs that are listened to, grime music, trap music, R&B, pop songs, rock music - they have a common theme. They tend to praise what God hates. The hearts of the musicians create songs that glorify the same sins that nailed Christ to the cross. It isn't right that we listen to this music because the lyrics of such, whether you realise it or not, they affect us. We need to train ourselves on how to reject the things of this world. 1 John 2:15 says "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
I am not saying that any show or movie or song that doesn't say Jesus Jesus Jesus all over it is bad. Don't get me wrong. I'm just trying to tell you that we should avoid things that God hates. God loves positivity and encouragement and the right kind of love, so it's okay to listen to things that edify us or make us better in this way. But when we listen to things that encourage us to hate each other, or be sly to one another, or be hostile towards your ex, or cause harm to other people, when we listen to these things whether you like it or not we take them to heart. Whether it be subconsciously or not, we slowly start to look at things with that mindset or attitude and this is not what God calls us to do.
When I gave my life to Christ, being honest, it was very hard. It was hard because I loved the very things that God hated. I remember going through my music playlists and deleting and deleting and deleting. It was painful, I won't lie. But in the end, today, I look back and I am glad I got rid of those toxic things. I am happy that the music I now listen to brings joy to my ears and helps me to thank God even more for providing music that lifts my spirits, for providing music that makes me happy that I am a Christian. When you want to get serious about God, it requires sacrifice and a lot of it. Jesus said count the cost before you enter this race. "And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." (Matthew 11:38)
Proverbs 4:23 instructs us to guard our hearts with all DILIGENCE. That is to say that we must put in hard work to protect our hearts. It's not going to be an easy thing to give up so much or abstain from worldly pleasures but it is certainly worth it. Fill your heart with the word of God by studying, not just reading, it as often as possible and see if your life, perspective and everything about you isn't transformed. The Word of God is not just a book, it is life, it is spirit. This is why it transforms us when we study it, when we not only hear what it says, but obey.
It is not easy to do all of this, I know that and God knows that. The Bible says "for by strength shall no man prevail" (1 Samuel 2:9). Our own strength will never be enough to keep up going. This is why we have to learn to totally rely and depend on God. When we are faced with the challenge of yielding to these harmful things or saying no, we must learn to commit it to God. I dare you today that whenever you are tempted, you pray immediately and commit the issue to God, then get on your feet and walk away from it. That TV show will survive without you. BE TRIUMPHANT. Allow Christ to reign in you today.
I pray now that God will give you the strength and the grace to walk away from the things that he hates. I pray that he will help you to identify the wrong things in your heart and start working with you to fix them today. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.
If you have any questions or comments, as always, contact me at the links you'll find in the banner.
I hope you have a lovely day.
God bless.
"Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established."
Proverbs 16:3
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