Daily Devotional

One of the important things I have learned through many years of pastoral ministry is that what we believe to be true affects how we live.   People will either do what is good or bad depending on their heart’s condition.  If we treasure truth in our hearts, we will produce that which is good.  If we treasure lies, distortions, or evil in our hearts, that is what our living will produce.  

There is an old farming principle that is based on a spiritual principle… “If you don’t like what you are harvesting in your life, plant different seeds.”

If we have planted seeds in our lives that are based on truth, it will produce good fruit that will be a blessing to us and others.  But if we have planted seeds that are based on lies and distortions of truth, then it will negatively affect our lives.  Often, we have told ourselves distortions of truth repeatedly and we have come to believe them as truth.  We have told ourselves for example that we are failures, we will never amount to anything, we can never do anything right, we will never measure up, or that we are of no value.  When we have told ourselves these things long enough, they will affect how we live and think about ourselves.  We are the only ones who know the thoughts of our hearts.  No one talks to us more than we do!  We need to note what we continue to tell ourselves.  Is it based on truth or distortions of truth we have come to believe?  
 
Without believing truth at our heart level, there will be a spiritual emptiness, and we will struggle to live as authentic Christians.  The Bible describes the heart as…

• A person’s character or inner life with its desires and purposes…

Jesus spoke of the inner character of man when He said in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure in heart…”  (Matthew 5:8) Jesus could see into the heart of man and could see the condition of the heart.  The Scriptures tell us that as He looked at the Pharisees He was, “…grieved at their hardness of heart.” (Mark 3:5) Today Jesus can see the condition of our hearts.  What does He see?  Are we building truth into our hearts?

• Deceitful and difficult to understand…

Jeremiah tells us, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

Jesus speaking of the heart tells us the evil actions of man come from his heart.  “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.” (Mark 7:23) We will never fully understand our hearts.  God is the only One who accurately sees them and can judge them.  He alone knows the thoughts and the intents of the heart.  For good to come out of our lives we need to think about things that are truthful, honorable, and Scripturally based.  

• The basis for all of life’s issues…

Whatever our hearts dwell on we will eventually do and as a result, become.  That is why what we believe at the very core of our hearts is so important.  There is a struggle for control of the mind because what we spend time thinking about feeds our hearts.  If the substance of our thoughts is on truth, then as Luke 6:45 says, our heart will bring forth what is good.  If the substance of our thoughts is based on lies and distortions of truth, then our heart will bring for what is evil.  

How can I know my heart?  The condition of my heart is revealed through…

• My thoughts…

What we think about is so very important.  Our thought life feeds our hearts.  What our hearts believe, whether truth or lies comes out in action.  We need to ask ourselves, who controls our minds?  Our minds should not aimlessly wander from one thought to another.  Every thought needs to be brought into captivity for the glory of the Lord.  The Holy Spirit will enable us to take control of our thoughts.

• My speech…

Our mouth will tell on our heart.  It will reveal what we have treasured in our hearts.  The expletives that come from our mouth when something doesn’t go right, the things we say when something fails for the third time… reveal our hearts condition.  The mouth lets the world know what is in our heart.

• My actions…

What we think will eventually become action.  That is why it is so important to feed our minds with the truth of God’s Word and with thoughts based on reality.  Many times, we give our hearts very little input from God’s Word but many more hours of worldly input through different media sources.  Without God’s truth in our lives to counteract the ungodly input from the world it will someday result in actions that are completely opposed to the things of God.

Today may we surrender our hearts to God, and pray as David did, “Search me, O God, and know my heart…” (Psalm 139:23)

Prayer:  Lord, I want You to be the center of my thinking.  I open my heart to You.  Search my heart completely and point out anything that is displeasing to You.  Help me to think about the truth I find in Scripture so that my life will be changed to be more like Christ.  Amen

"New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved."