[A Monday / Wednesday
/ Friday Devotional Feature of the First Road Blog]
I
believe most mortals don’t talk to their own heart. Usually they listen to it;
and therein is a problem. A devotional writer of days past spoke of the
matchless, redeeming love of Christ for lost souls. He followed those thoughts
with this:
The author of a psalm wrote:
God
never intended the heart to be the lecturer of a person’s spirit. We
are to guard our heart diligently. The double
minded man of James
1:8 and 4:8 is, more specifically, a man dictated by a divided soul.
Apart
from faith in Christ, a person is spiritually dead; but once he trusts Jesus as
his sin-bearer and as his only and all sufficient right of acceptance by God,
he becomes spiritually alive. In his spiritually dead condition he
was ruled by his heart’s dictates. However, having trusted Christ he is a
fully alive person and can redirect his heart and soul. He has an answer to the
heart’s messages:
You’re worthless.
You’re a victim of your
circumstances and orientations.
God wouldn’t give you the time of
day.
No, wait, I’m better than others.
People should recognize
my obvious greatness.
Armed
with the Truth of God’s Word, an alive spirit can hold the heart to account
and demand its cooperation. Armed
with God’s promises to redeemed sinners, an alive spirit can contradict the
heart and declare, “My Jesus, I love you!” in spite of the conquered heart’s efforts
to object. That is not hypocrisy; that is spiritual leadership where it counts
most.
Thank you for taking your time to share these gems. I haven't told you lately how much I appreciate them. If I can't read them immediately I save them to my word file. This message coincides with Andy Stanley's message last week on Your Move. Both have been very convicting. Keep on keeping on ;-)
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