Your Heart is Good


I was re-reading some of Preston Gillham’s blog recently. Here are a few of his thoughts.

From Why Does it [Heart] Matter?
Here’s my question: If the heart is the executive center of us, the seat of our passions and desires, the deepest of our inner recesses, and is indeed flawed by duplicitous, deceitful, and wicked tendencies, then what is there for Satan to do that I won’t automatically do?

Seems to me the devil is out of a job. Why should Satan waste his time tempting us if we are going to follow our hearts and wind up in the ditch of sin anyway?

And here is a follow up question: What did Jesus truly accomplish with all that He suffered during His crucifixion? If all He did was make me into a heart divided, what good is that? I’m no good to God divided, except after I die, and I’m going to continue serving Satan by default of my flawed heart just as I did prior to becoming a Believer. Granted, maybe I’ll sin a bit less, but how good is “less” when God demands pure and holy?
From Your Heart is Good:
"If the heart is desperately wicked then why should I trust anything that comes out of it. It forces me to look outside myself continually for direction and help. Though that is not necessarily a bad place to start, to live that way continually does not develop any place for solitude or quite where we can meet Father on a regular basis. If my heart is evil, why would I want to meet God there? I am in need of constant rescuing, from myself and from my own heart. His gift, His presence is my new heart.

While we have many issues that create complex problems, the transformation of our hearts is not one of the issues. This one has been resolved through Christ, and His divine endeavor at Calvary makes it possible for us to connect with God and meet Him heart-to-heart, to bond with Him, and to share in His desires.
From Heart Desire:
The challenge is not to clean up your heart. Christ did that magnificently! The challenge is to live from your heart, to become aware through the Spirit’s power of what your new heart desires and follow that passionately. And I’ll tell you right now: Your heart desperately desires to know God, to walk with Him, to develop a close bond with Jesus Christ, and to live each day in confident collaboration with the Spirit indwelling you.
Living from the heart. I am embracing it more each day. Faith is of the heart and not the head.


6 comments:

  1. A lot of people will argue with you on this, bro. Not me, but a lot will.

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  2. I won't argue either.

    The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

    And...

    Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.(Mat. 12:34)

    But thankfully Jesus gives us an undivided heart and put a new spirit in (us); (he) will remove from (us our) heart of stone and give (us) a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 11:19)

    The sticky part is that, though He did clean up our hearts magnificently, He didn't remove our sinful nature.

    Wouldn't THAT be awesome?

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  3. I think I just might have to link to this in a future Ecclesiastes post.

    Does this not fit right in with the study?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Really good. The ancients described it very well. It's the heart, not the head.

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  5. Excellent. I am linking to your links & to Preston.

    ReplyDelete

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