A Clean Heart (June 21, 2024)

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

To live a life that pleases God requires that we guard the heart which governs what we think, say, and do. Admittedly, sometimes my wayward mind wanders to places that, as a Christian, I know it should not be going. Someone once said, “Where the mind goes, the body will follow.” Stunningly, Jesus taught that thinking about an unrighteous act is just as sinful as doing it. In order to take control of what we think, we must shift our focus from the head to the heart where our thoughts, words, and behaviors are conceived. What we think, how we speak, and the things we do all spring from or originate in the heart, the fountain of our thoughts, words, and deeds. Living in an ungodly society, that fountain can easily become polluted with worldly impurities.

“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” (Mark 7:21-23)

We must shield our hearts lest we allow Satan to gain a foothold to lead us into temptation and sin. In our human weakness, we need divine power in order to, as the Bible instructs, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) When we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit inhabits our yielded hearts, taking charge of the contents deep within and guiding the thoughts of our minds, the words of our mouths, and deeds of our flesh. Through this divine indwelling, we are gradually empowered to think, speak, and act more like Jesus. With Christ in us, pure living water springs up from the fountains of our hearts, cleansed by His shed blood, unto abundant and eternal life!