Heart Matters

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”  Hebrews 12:1

If you’ve been a believer for any length of time, I’m sure you can do a quick inventory and easily identify the “sin which so easily ensnares” you. You know, that area of your life you’ve determined to be on guard against so as to not fall back into it once again. Yet, as soon as the opportunity sets itself up for it, you find yourself right back there, in that same familiar place seeking a tinge of comfort and a temporary reprieve from whatever’s begun troubling you. It usually happens in a whirlwind, it gets a hold of you, encapsulates and then slams you down, before you even know what’s hit you. The brutality of the force of the impact is actually what knocks you back to your senses.  You can’t understand how it happened so quickly, how you fell for it once again. That familiar place, where you were determined not to end up again, “that sin which so easily entangles you,” has called to you and captured you once more. That familiar place, the “home” the old you used to live in the one you thought you left way back in your past, follows closely behind you with its doors open, releasing sweet aromas hoping to tempt you (when the time comes) to return and once again seek refuge there. Like the delicious candy coated house described in Hansel and Gretel it seems irresistible but if you enter in you’ll have to fight to get out. Eventually we’ll realize that it’s not a home but a cave and the things we’ve given ourselves over to, has now began to take over us-leaving us feeling empty, destitute and ashamed of where we’ve allowed ourselves to end up.

The familiar places find us because of our spiritual frailty and our fleshly fondness of that particular sin. We’re wrecked so easily by it because in some way we’re still so very vulnerable to it. It’s one of those areas in which something has been deeply embedded and therefore is being removed bit by bit every time a piece of it breaks through the surface and exposes itself. While there are some things the Lord removes from us in one clean swipe, other things He takes us through a process delivering us over time, as often as we depend on Him.  As sure as I am that you can quickly identify the place you’re prone to fall into sin, I’m just as sure you can easily pull up all the hard lessons (and consequences) the Lord has used to encourage you to lay that sin aside altogether.  Identifying it is easy if we’re willing to be honest with ourselves.  Like Dr. Tony Evans likes to say “tell the truth, shame the devil.” LOL  Anyway the reason I’m even going there with you is because of the above scripture. There’s a lot that’s at stake!

We need to be able to identify that familiar place of sin so we can effectively lay it aside. Why? Because it’s a weight! It holds you back, it drags you down, and it slows you pace. Child of God, you were created to run!  There’s a race which has been established for every believer to run.  It’s a race we were meant to win!  The apostle Paul put it this way: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.” 1st Corinthians 9:24  In order to “win” the race we have to discipline ourselves by setting aside everything that will deter us.  (See 1st Corinth 9:25-27). The sin that “so easily ensnares us” is that sin that has been allowed to have a wrongful place in our lives.  It’s that sin that lies below the surface of our fleshy desires.  I call it that “familiar place” because normally it’s that sin which was such a part of the old man it became a part of our character.

Since I usually wear my heart on my sleeve, I’ll share one of mine with you. (Jesus help meh).  Okay so here it goes.  If you’ve read most of my blog posts then you probably already know that I struggle with serving people.  To be more specific, I struggle with serving people who make careless and selfish decisions and then interrupt my life to bail them out.  (Can you hear that flesh speaking?) Yup, it still lingers.  Now The Lord has been very gracious to me concerning my sinfulness in this area.  For one, He has showed me the reason why I can be bent this way in my flesh. This in turn has allowed me to really understand it, and as a result, truly own it.  Secondly, He keeps-keeps-keeps, did I say He keeps, giving me opportunities to serve others (who needed it because of their own selfishness or lack of wisdom) so that my heart can get right!  Each time it happens I’m angry.  Each time I feel frustrated and annoyed.  And each time I start letting self-pity creep in (and this is a place of comfort-a familiar place- because if I don’t deal with this sin-it will be the foundation of my justification of other sinful behaviors -over eating, over indulgence, flesh feeding thingy’s).  But guess what?!  As I surrender more and more to serving others for Him, regardless of the reason why, I notice I those sinful reactive feelings dissolve quicker and quicker each time.  As I pray right there in the middle of the net I find myself in (not because of the opportunity to serve, but because of my unwillingness to do so) I can feel His hand gently releasing me.  Before I know it, while I’m right in the middle of serving in that thing, I’m free! Then the enemy tries to piggy back on my sin and flood my soul with guilt and shame, but thankfully The Holy Spirit within me ain’t having it!  It’s then I’m reminded of God’s great love for me in this thing.  He won’t let me off the hook until the hook is out of me!  He reminds me “don’t miss it this time!”  Those opportunities are a precious gift from Him.  He’s changing my heart.  He’s evicting that sin I keep giving a place to stay.  He’s refining and cheering me on as I run the race He’s set out specifically set out for me.  You’d think I’d get it, that as a believer I’d have no problems serving because my Master came here to serve: “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Matt.20:28.  But that’s not always the case for me, so I have to get this right! Guess what?!  The LORD is going to make sure I do! Praise Him!

Now I have to also confess that that’s not my only place of susceptibility. See I’m convinced there’s a certain curse word that lives on the tip of my tongue catching me off guard every time I’m unpleasantly surprised.  I would say “lol” but it’s not funny.  Or maybe that’s the problem-deep down I do think it’s funny.  I grew up in a family of women who had mouths like sailors.  My sisters and I have actually discussed our sentiment that without using “certain words” it seems as though we just cant convey or emphasize exactly what we’re trying to articulate at times. Aha! There’s the justification! Did you catch that?! Wrong thinking will always lead to wrong behavior!  Our familiar places where the sin that so easily can entangles us lives has usually been built in some way or another on the foundation of a lie.

Also I have to warn you that the familiar places are not always lying there in plain sight. They’re hidden, safely snuggling in the cloak of “out of sight/out of mind.”  Yet ready to rise to the surface at a moments notice-just like that dreaded cuss word I mentioned earlier. Yes the familiar places are tricky.  Here’s how I believe the process goes for me.  Something happens that disappoints or discourages me.  I take it to the Lord and pray about it and decide to move on.  Sometimes I think since I obeyed Him (regardless of my heart resenting having to do so) I overcame it.  I’ll think its over, gone, but it’s not.  Deep down a root begins to develop as I move forward in my denial.  All of a sudden I start feeling out of sorts.  I’m unable to realize that I haven’t dealt properly with this thing and that I’ve moved on without it moving out.  As my soul begins to seek comfort-I begin allowing some things to slip through the cracks.  I pray less, read my Bible less, and fellowship less.  I’m avoiding the fact that I have something I need to really deal with before the Lord and I’m moving further away from the places I need to be that will help me get there.  In prayer I speak to God.  Through His Word, He speaks to me.  But that unsettled thing inside wants none of that-it wants counterfeits-it wants idols.  It wants the comfort of a cover up.  And where does it go to in order to find it?  You got it-the old familiar places!

When we don’t deal with the things that disappoint and discourage us, it can subconsciously cause us to feel as though the Lord has dealt harshly with us.  At least I find this has been true for me-many times over.  There’s a process I have to go through in order to overcome my flesh and how it wants to react to life and how it wants to respond to God. There are just some things that are too hurtful to think I can just quickly lay it down at the altar and walk away without receiving instructions from my Lord about how to move forward without that baggage and how to make sure I don’t try to come back to pick it up again.  The Bible says “the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it?” God does! (Jeremiah 17:9-10) It says “in the flesh lieth no good thing” so as long as I am in the flesh there are some things I have to put on and some things I have to take off.  I have to recognize the extent my flesh wants to insist on getting it’s way (I call it my “Jonah spirit”). I have to know that in my flesh I  have a propensity to become angry with the Lord in a way which is so sinful it’ll cause me to backslide and lead me to sin even more. I have to know that my flesh is so deceitful it will ignore my decision to become disobedient to my God and try to pretend nothing’s changed.  My flesh will lead me if I’m not careful into the familiar places where I will find myself entangled with the same sin over and over again.  But GOD….

But God lives inside of me and I’m so grateful He will never leave me to myself.  He might let me wander from room to room inside that old tattered and dilapidated house.  But eventually He will make it so uncomfortable for me -so lonely, so cold, so dark-that I’ll run to the door when it cracks open with its ray of light!  I’ve been reading Joni Eareckson Tada’s Book “Her Story” and I have to quote what she said when she experienced a hardening of her heart towards God.  Just as a little background, in her case, her heart wandered while she was working on a noble Christian project, right in the midst of her service to the Lord. When she finally came to terms with her disobedience she remarked about how Jesus dealt with sin when He walked the earth (the first time).  She said:  “Even though I still feel the burnt edges of exhaustion, the taint of humiliation, I very much want to be well.  I know the answer, somehow, is in the Lord Jesus.  The compassionate, sensitive way He dealt with sick people is always comforting. Sweet and gentle Jesus.  But now as I read the stories of His dealing with sin, I notice that He overthrows tables and flails a whip at people who pollute His Father’s temple.  He confronts those who try to mask their sinful attitudes.  He exposes uncleanness in the lives of His disciples.  He even sharply rebukes His closest friends.  I don’t like reading these things, but they are there.  He does not let selfishness or pride slip by His notice.  He squares off against sin.  And He squares off against the sin in me.”  (Except from Choices…Changes by Joni Eareckson Tada). 

Joni said when God pressed her up against herself, she didn’t like what she saw-her own sinfulness.  She realized the reason she was so discontent and struggled for so long was because of her very own “postponed disobedience.”  Joni had allowed herself to backslide right while she was making a movie about her life and testimony for Christ.  Do you see how subtly sin can creep in?  And here’s the thing, the longer we ignore our unfaithful hearts the more hardened towards the Lord our hearts will become.  The more we allow our hearts to chase after worthless idols, the less we’ll care about the things of God.  How long we refuse to confess and repent is how long we will remain in our carnality.  I think its better for us to take it to The Lord before He decides to take it to us! N’est pas?

(By the way her book is so full of Biblical truths and principles I think every believer should read it and it should be taught as a course in theology classes).

Guarding our hearts even against the seemingly most innocent of things is crucial. Checking our hearts even when we think we have forgiven and accepted the difficult things in our lives is critical.  All the enemy needs is a crack to expose and entice us to return to our familiar place and the sin that so easily entangles and ensnares us!  Let God Keep your heart!  That being said, here are some scriptures to meditate on and memorize so you can recall them when your flesh begins to rise up, when the enemy begins to try to reel you in, and when the world begins to reveal all it has to tempt you:

• “But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; ..” Proverbs 8:36
• “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issue of life.” Proverbs 4:23
• “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells;..” Romans 7:18
• “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” 1st Corinthians 10:13
• “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:1-2
• “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,…” Philippians 2:5
• “But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” 1st Corinthians 2: 15-16

HEART TO HEART: We May Never Be Sinless In This Body of Flesh, But We Can Sin Less and Less When We Walk Closely With HIM!