"The Issue Is The Heart"

One thing Jesus made abundantly clear: TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEART. Not your physical heart but your spiritual heart. The wisdom of the proverb speaks: "Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life." (Prov. 4:23) The Hebrew writer, using OT Israel as an example pleaded: "Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God." (Heb. 3:12) It is out of our heart that all our issues, our desires and thoughts proceed. Mark said it was out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, fornication, thefts, deceit, slander, pride and foolishness. We need to watch over our hearts carefully.

Let's just note the following heart responses:

People pray trying to look good in the presence of others is not praying at all. That is all about you and it comes from the heart. To give so you get recognition, a pat on the back is not giving at all, it is taking! To obey some rules and quote some verses just so people think you know something or you can put someone in their place is nothing but a heart of loveless legalism. For young people to obey their parents to gain access to the car or some other desire is not obedience, that is deception to gain! Those who are stronger may force others to submit but those who submit aren't servants of the heart. For preachers or elders to guilt people into giving or doing is not a heart of grace in giving. Why are all these things this way? Because no one can control the heart of another!!

Jesus was clear when He taught to love the Lord your God with all your heart. It was the heartless that Jesus spoke calling them hypocrites because they honor God with their lips but their heart was far away (Matt. 15:8). Paul preached that one can preach a marvellous message, give all their possessions to feed the poor and even the body to be burned in the name of the Lord and it is not from a heart of love it is nothing more than an empty spectacle!

The heart is the issue. The heart surrendered. The heart being watched over and putting the right things in it is the key. Without that, our lives lived for the Lord means nothing!