Battle of the Heart

Day 29, September 6, 2011

As a maintenance technician, I spend a lot of time on a mower, weed eater, or tractor.  I get plenty of time to think while doing these jobs and today was no different.  I spent my whole day on the mower and during that time I was able to pray for family and friends in my life, think about my own walk and life in Christ, and what I needed to do to accomplish all my tasks this week.  Occasionally throughout my time on the mower though, my mind would float to things that were not true and honorable.  This is a struggle for me because I know that it is important for my mind to be focused on what is right  as seen in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

I felt like the Lord was showing me how important it is for me to guard my heart and mind daily.  In America, we encounter so many media advertisements, marketing devices, and people that try and divert our attention to them.  If you watch TV, listen to the radio, browse the Internet, drive down the road, or eat food outside your house, you will encounter things that are trying to gain your attention, time, and money.  I have always found it incredible that people will argue that these things in no way affect their daily walk in Christ. Matthew 15:17-20 helps to accentuate the need to keep our minds pure saying, “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?  But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.  These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”  Things that come out of our heart are directly proportional to the things we put in our heart.

Psalm 19:12-14 says, “But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults.  Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. 
Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression.  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.”  This is my prayer daily that the words of my mouth and meditations of my heart would be pleasing to the Lord.  Is that yours also?  So many times we can excuse our thoughts as being something that we can’t control.  This is why I believe that the songs we listen to, the shows and movies we watch, the people we hang out with, the things we look at on the Internet, and the passions we focus on do indeed influence our hearts.  We have to be so careful to guard our hearts.  Psalm 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”  From our hearts, flow the springs of life.   Just like America, and much of the world, has polluted most of their fresh water systems by not protecting the waters from pollution, we pollute our hearts by not guarding them from the garbage we allow to enter them. 

The problem is that our hearts are so easily polluted and many times we miss that there is even anything wrong.  The only way we can purify our hearts is to bring them, filled with all our trash, to the Father and let him completely clean them and fill them with His pure living water.  I don’t know about you but I don’t like to bring my polluted heart to the Lord because I only want to bring Him my best.  The thing is that we can never clean our hearts on our own because purity comes from Christ and it is only through Him we can find purity and healing.  As Psalm 51:17 says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”  This verse means that we must come before God humble and penitent.  Through seeking forgiveness and laying our burdened, polluted hearts before Jesus, we will gain freedom and purity from our sins. 

In your daily walk, I hope you will seek to live the advice Paul gave to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:11-12, “man of God, flee from all this [unrighteousness, false witness, and love of material possessions], pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.  Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” 

Blessings,

Greg